Upstage Enters AI Race

South Korean start-up Upstage has developed a large language model (LLM) that rivals advanced systems from the US and China. Upstage's LLM, particularly its Solar model, has achieved top rankings on the Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard, outperforming models from tech giants. The company's AI models are designed for enterprise use, optimised for multiple languages, including Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Upstage's technology is not only about language; it also delivers document AI solutions, including OCR technology, with high accuracy. This has led to adoption in industries like finance and healthcare, with clients including Samsung and Hanwha. The company's AI-powered service can extract data from documents with irregular formats, such as invoices from various suppliers. Upstage has partnered with LawTalk to develop a legal LLM specifically for the Korean legal ecosystem.

Upstage has secured $72 million in Series B funding to expand its Solar LLM system and Document AI capabilities. The company leverages Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for computing power, achieving faster data transfer within its GPU clusters and more reliable performance. Upstage's mission is to build AI models trained to excel in select languages, providing a versatile alternative to larger, more resource-intensive models.