Korea’s AI ecosystem is gaining global traction, and one of its most prominent startups has just secured a new milestone. Upstage is deepening its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) while receiving strategic backing from Amazon itself. The move reflects confidence in Upstage’s Solar LLM and highlights Korea’s growing AI competitiveness in APAC and US markets.

Korean AI Startup Upstage Expands Global Footprint Through AWS Partnership

Korean AI startup Upstage has entered a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to expand its market presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and the United States.

Alongside the collaboration, Amazon has made a minority equity investment in Upstage, underscoring global confidence in Korea’s next-generation AI capabilities. The exact investment amount has not been disclosed.

Through the agreement, AWS will serve as Upstage’s preferred cloud provider, with the startup leveraging AWS infrastructure to build, train, and deploy its Solar large language model (LLM) and expand its suite of AI-powered document processing solutions.

Scaling Solar LLM with AWS Infrastructure

Upstage plans to use AWS’s full range of machine learning infrastructure, including Amazon SageMaker, AWS Trainium, and AWS Inferentia chips, to further develop and optimize Solar. These tools will enable the company to achieve high-performance and cost-efficient generative AI, strengthening accessibility for enterprise and public sector clients.

Over the years, Upstage has trained Solar on Amazon SageMaker, cutting training times significantly through advanced data preprocessing and continuous pre-training methods. Building on AWS infrastructure, the company also developed its proprietary Depth-Up Scaling (DUS) technology, which enables more efficient scaling and improved model performance.

Upstage & AWS Partnership: Generative AI for the Public Sector

A key focus of the partnership is the public sector, where the companies plan to deliver generative AI solutions optimized for performance, security, and regulatory compliance. Government agencies, public institutions, and regulated industries are identified as priority markets in both APAC and the US.

This initiative follows the AI Initiative launched jointly by Upstage and AWS in April, aimed at accelerating generative AI adoption in education and non-profit sectors. More than 200 institutions, including Seoul National University and KAIST, are already participating in the program.

Investor Confidence and Ecosystem Significance

Executives at both companies emphasized the strategic and long-term nature of the partnership. Jon Jones, Vice President of Global Startups and Venture Capital at AWS, said,

“Upstage is advancing how public-sector stakeholders can improve efficiency and productivity while keeping data secure by building on AWS.”

Abhijit Muzumdar, Amazon’s Vice President of Corporate Development, added,

“Upstage has established itself as a key AI innovator in the Asia-Pacific region. This investment supports the next stage of its growth as it expands the Solar foundation model and document processing solutions.”

Upstage CEO Sung-hoon Kim noted,

“Upstage and AWS have built a strong foundation through years of collaboration. This agreement represents a new chapter in realizing our joint vision to accelerate global AI innovation. Through this strategic partnership, we will expand our influence and deliver safe, intelligent, high-performance AI solutions to more public institutions.”

Global Expansion and Korea’s AI Momentum

For Korea’s startup ecosystem, the partnership highlights how domestic AI innovators are moving beyond the local market to compete in global AI arenas.

By combining its proprietary Solar LLM, DUS technology, and AWS’s advanced cloud and hardware stack, Upstage demonstrates how Korean startups can translate research-driven innovation into commercially viable products for APAC and US markets.

The Amazon investment also signals growing venture capital confidence in AI innovation from Korea, reinforcing the country’s position as a rising hub for enterprise-ready generative AI.

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