The launch of ChatGPT plunged the world into a whirlwind of AI competition. Amidst the massive waves of Big Tech giants like Google, MS, and Meta, there is a Korean startup shouting for 'AI Sovereignty' with unique technology. It's **Upstage**, a company that dominated the Hugging Face leaderboard and showed the global market the power of 'K-AI'. Today, we dive deep into why developers around the world are paying attention to this Korean company. đ°đˇđ
Birth of the AI National Team: CEO Sung Kim & The Avengers
Do you remember 'Sung Kim', the professor who guided countless developers into the world of AI with his 'Deep Learning for Everyone' lectures? After leading Naver Clova AI, the company he founded is Upstage.
Founded in October 2020, Upstage was different from the start. Elite AI engineers from Kakao, Naver, and Google gathered to form what could literally be called 'AI Avengers'. Their goal was clear: "Making AI Beneficial."
Not just AI that stays in the lab, but making 'Practical AI' that companies can actually use in business. This is the core reason why Upstage showed unicorn-level growth in a short period. Especially in 2025, its status has been solidified by being selected as a key anchor company for the government's 'AI National Team' project.
"We do not blindly chase Big Tech's massive models. Our weapon is 'Optimized AI' that delivers the best performance at a cost that companies can afford." â Sung Kim, CEO of Upstage
Solar LLM: The Rise of a Small but Mighty Sun
In late 2023, there was an event that turned the global open-source AI ecosystem upside down. Upstage's proprietary Large Language Model (LLM), **'Solar'**, took first place on the Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard. It's because it outperformed Meta's Llama 2 and Mistral models with its relatively small size of 10.7 billion parameters at the time.
Why the Hype Over Solar?
- Overwhelming Cost-Performance: While massive models like GPT-4 offer great performance, their operating costs are astronomical. Solar delivers performance exceeding GPT-3.5 with a smaller size, making it much cheaper to run.
- Korean Language Specialization: The Solar Pro version, released in 2025, perfectly understands Korean nuances, legal terminology, and cultural contexts. It feels just like talking to a native Korean.
- Private LLM Optimization: For companies unable to use ChatGPT due to data security concerns, Solar has become the best alternative as an On-Premise model.
Key Point: DUS Technology
Upstage's secret weapon is DUS (Depth Up-Scaling). It's a technology that takes a base 7B parameter model and cleverly expands the layers to maximize performance while increasing training efficiency. It's like tuning a compact car engine to achieve sports car speeds.
Technical Differentiators: DUS and Document AI
It's not just about LLMs. Another heart of Upstage is Document AI. Have you used 'AskUp' on KakaoTalk, which has surpassed 2 million friends? The eye (OCR) that reads text in images is this Document AI technology.
As of 2025, this technology has evolved further.
- Complex Table Recognition: It converts table structures in dense terms and conditions or complex financial statements into HTML or Markdown without distortion.
- Handwriting Deciphering: It reads even notoriously bad handwriting (like doctors' prescriptions đ) quite accurately.
- Integration with Solar: The process of reading documents (OCR) and understanding the content to summarize or answer questions (Solar LLM) connects seamlessly.
Community Reactions and Global Evaluation
What are the reactions to Upstage in domestic and international developer communities (Reddit, Blind, Quasarzone, etc.)? It goes beyond national pride to substantial recognition.
đŁď¸ Vivid Developer Feedback
-
đ¤ r/LocalLLaMA (Reddit):
"Honestly, Solar 10.7B is insane. It's top-tier in reasoning capabilities among models I can run on a single 3090 GPU. I can't believe it outperforms Llama 2 in English as well." -
đ°đˇ Blind:
"Nothing beats Solar when configuring RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). Summarizing Korean documents feels more natural than GPT-4 often. It will definitely succeed in the B2B market." -
đŚ Twitter (X):
"Did you see Upstage signed with AWS? This means global companies will use Solar too. It's majestic to see a Korean startup exporting LLMs."
Of course, there is constructive feedback such as "still lacking in ultra-high difficulty reasoning compared to GPT-4" or requests for "clearer licensing policies for open-source models." However, most applaud the 'rebellion of the underdog' overcoming resource handicaps with technological prowess.
Practical Guide: Trying Out Solar API
Seeing is believing! If you are a developer, you must run the code yourself. Solar API provides endpoints compatible with OpenAI, so you can switch immediately with almost no modification to existing code. Here is how to call Solar simply with Python.
from openai import OpenAI
# Enter the API key issued from Upstage Console
client = OpenAI(
api_key="YOUR_UPSTAGE_API_KEY",
base_url="https://api.upstage.ai/v1/solar"
)
# Asking a question to Solar Pro model
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="solar-pro",
messages=[
{
"role": "system",
"content": "You are a helpful assistant and an expert in Korean AI."
},
{
"role": "user",
"content": "Summarize in 3 points why Upstage's Solar model is good for enterprise use."
}
]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)It's really simple, right? Just change the base_url and model name, and you can instantly experience the power of 'Korean AI'.
Conclusion: Cheering for the Future of K-AI
Upstage has become a symbol proving the potential of Korea's AI ecosystem beyond just a company. In December 2025, we live in an era where AI is becoming as natural as electricity or the internet. In this massive flow, having 'our own LLM' that avoids technological dependence and captures our voice is a great blessing.
The 'Magic' Upstage will show will continue. Why not join this amazing journey by talking to AskUp or utilizing the Solar API? đ