LG Uplus is teaming up with Amazon Web Services to develop a South Korean sovereign cloud ecosystem, addressing growing concerns over data privacy and control in the country.
The partnership, announced March 10 following discussions at MWC 2025 in Barcelona, will create cloud infrastructure that complies with South Korea’s regulatory requirements, ensuring data remains within national borders.
Beyond infrastructure, the companies will optimize their respective AI language models – LG Uplus’s small language model “ixi-GEN” and AWS’s large language model “Nova” – to accelerate AI adoption among Korean businesses.
The collaboration will also produce a “Work Agent” tool designed to simplify the AI transformation process for enterprises struggling with implementation.
Kwon Yong-hyun, executive vice president at LG Uplus, said the partnership addresses pain points of domestic companies navigating AI transformation challenges.
The initiative reflects a growing trend among nations to maintain digital sovereignty amid concerns about foreign control of cloud services. For LG Uplus, South Korea’s third-largest telecom provider, the move represents an attempt to diversify beyond traditional communication services into higher-margin enterprise solutions.
