While pursuing his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Oxford, Junghwan Lim watched many peers head deeper into academia or pivot toward lucrative careers in finance. But an encounter with DeepMind, later acquired by Google, inspired a more unconventional path: using his expertise in anabelian geometry, a formidable study spanning algebra, geometry and topology, to develop technology.
He returned home to Seoul and did stints as a data scientist at a gaming company and Samsung Research. But rather than settling into a comfortable career at a conglomerate, he soon ventured into the world of startups. Today, the 34-year-old is applying his polymathic background at Motif Technologies, a startup that’s emerged as a contender in the race to build South Korea’s national AI infrastructure.
Late last week, the government announced that it selected Motif as a competitor in a state-backed competition to create sovereign AI models. Nicknamed “AI Squid Game” after Netflix’s dystopian survival show, the multi-stage contest — overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT — kicked off in January and is designed to have a panel of judges pick two of the best homegrown AI models.
It will join a bigger local AI startup, Upstage, in challenging industrial giants SK Group and LG Group in the next elimination round in August.
Motif had been eliminated in an earlier round but was allowed to rejoin the race in recognition of its competitiveness. Its Motif-2-12.7B-Reasoning model was released in December, garnering impressive benchmark scores and becoming the best-performing model from Korea at the time, according to Artificial Analysis, an independent research organization based in the U.S..
“We believe that we have the best technology and R&D capabilities in the country,” said Lim, chief executive officer of Motif, which was spun off from AI software company Moreh a year ago.
Motif’s founding mission was to use technology to transcend resource constraints, he said, a goal that mirrored the national drive to use innovation to overcome scarcity and to challenge the dominance of the U.S. and China.
The company isn’t just competing with domestic rivals. It has been measuring its model against much bigger leaders in a bid to outperform them. “Win or lose, this effort will push us forward in our mission to become a top-tier global AI company,” Lim said.
The government is providing Motif with funds as well as access to 768 of Nvidia’s B200 AI processors. The initiative represents a change for a government that has long backed the country’s powerful conglomerates to drive innovation and export-led economic growth, although it’s begun encouraging tech entrepreneurship in recent years. By giving smaller startups a chance, Seoul is acknowledging the disruptive force of AI and that its economic future relies increasingly on agile tech entrepreneurs rather than massive industrial scale.
South Korea is among a growing list of nations determined to prevent their industries and workforces from being left behind by AI. Officials are particularly keen on building homegrown foundation models as the country is a heavy user of AI, being one of the world’s biggest markets for ChatGPT by paying users. It also has a high density of industrial robots, a sector set for radical changes led by the technology.
The ultimate goal, officials say, is to develop indigenous open-source models that are on par with frontier models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The government is hoping the competition will breed innovation and bolster a homegrown AI industry, helping make the country a third power in the global AI race, providing an alternative to the dominance of the U.S. and China.
While AI is becoming a capital-intensive industry, with giants like OpenAI and Anthropic raising billions to fund massive GPU clusters, startups remain central to major innovations. Little-known Chinese player DeepSeek, for example, upended the industry by demonstrating world-class performance with cost-efficient AI models.
“It’s great to see these bold startups jumping into a difficult sector,” said Chanjun Park, an assistant professor in the School of Software at Soongsil University in Seoul. “When you look globally, the big AI leaders are actually startups, not the established tech companies.”
The other startup in the contest, Upstage, is already something of a star in the local tech scene. Led by co-founder and CEO Sung Kim, the company is preparing for an initial public offering and is widely considered, along with LG AI Research, a top contender in the race.
During the last round of competition, Kim made an impression by publicly confronting allegations that the company’s Solar Open 100B model was fine-tuned from a Chinese model. Through a livestreamed presentation, the veteran developer gave a walkthrough of its original architecture, prompting an apology from the accuser. “Sung Kim is fearless, and he’s fast,” said Soongsil University’s Park, who worked with him in the past.
Kim, unlike many of the country’s tech elite, comes from a humble background. The son of a factory worker, he grew up sharing a room with his family of six. He studied at a vocational high school which offered free tuition, a track typically leading to factory work. Yet he managed to enroll at Daegu University where, in the early days of the internet, he developed one of Korea’s first search engines.
After roles at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he joined Naver, often described as the country’s answer to Google. There, he spearheaded the early development of AI as head of CLOVA AI, hiring a team of 150 engineers. However, frustrated with Naver’s repeated shifts on AI strategy, Kim quit to found Upstage, convincing 10 elite engineers to join his new venture.
The competition is also credited for energizing the country’s broader tech sector, speeding up innovation and partnerships across industries. Artificial Analysis said in January that the initiative was helping Korea become a clear contender for third place in global AI. Even those already cut from the race, such as startup Trillion Labs, Naver and NCSoft’s NC AI, say they’re pressing ahead with their AI strategies.
“Nothing fundamentally changes for us. We didn’t start this company for a competition,” said Jay Shin of Trillion Labs, which lost to Motif last week in its bid to rejoin the race. The 31-year-old founder said the company still aims to challenge the dominant architectures of global models.
Upstage’s Kim said he believes the competition will bolster Korea’s chance at becoming a top global player, adding that he’s not afraid of elimination.
“Luck and drive brought me here,” he said. “Failure doesn’t scare me, but I’m here to win.”
Originally written by: Yoolim Lee (Bloomberg)
Source: The Japan Times
Published on: 25 February 2026
Link to original article: Rebel startups challenge conglomerates in South Korea’s ‘AI squid game’
