NVIDIA invests in four domestic AI startups, including Upstage

Announcement of investment in domestic AI startup Point to Technology

Upstage, Motif, and Real World also mentioned additional investment plans.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hayoung Kwon = Nvidia announced its investment in Point to Technology, a domestic artificial intelligence (AI) startup.

They also announced that they are planning additional investments in Motif Technologies, Real World, and Upstage.

On the 9th, NVIDIA held the 'AI Startup Partnership Forum' at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul with the Ministry of Science and ICT and announced this investment plan.

Lee Do-gyu, head of the Information and Communication Policy Office of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and key Nvidia officials attended the forum on this day to discuss foundation models and opportunities for cooperation with more than 20 domestic startups in the physical AI, AI infrastructure, and AI semiconductor fields.

This investment plan is promoted based on continued cooperation with the domestic startup and venture ecosystem.

NVIDIA provides preferential pricing, technical expertise, and investor connection opportunities to more than 1,000 member companies in Korea through NVIDIA Inception, a startup growth support program.

◇ AI model·interconnect… Investment notice encompassing physical AI

Point to Technology is a company that develops scalable radio frequency (RF)-based connection technology (interconnect) that transmits data between semiconductor chips and racks (server cabinets) in AI factories.

This technology is an alternative to existing copper and optical interconnect solutions and supports next-generation AI infrastructure by providing the transmission distance, performance, and efficiency necessary for AI cluster expansion.

Upstage is developing a large-scale language model (LLM) 'Solar' and document AI tools, and is building AI applications that help companies extract information from complex documents and simplify business processes.

Upstage plans to receive investment from NVIDIA in the ongoing Series C second investment round.

Once this investment is completed, Upstage will secure global technology companies such as Amazon, AMD, and NVIDIA as investors.

Upstage was recognized as having a corporate value of more than KRW 1 trillion in the first Series C investment worth KRW 180 billion completed in April this year, becoming the first domestic generative AI company to become a unicorn.

Upstage plans to use the funds secured through Series C to advance its own AI models such as Solar, recruit key talent at home and abroad, and expand its presence in overseas markets such as the United States and Japan.

Along with the Nvidia investment announcement on this day, Motif Technologies also announced that it has completed attracting investment for the development of the next-generation foundation LLM and has begun full-scale model development.

Nvidia is scheduled to invest in this bridge round along with existing investors, and it is said that 'Motif 4', the successor model to the flagship model 'Motif 3' unveiled in August, is scheduled to be released as an open weight in the first quarter of next year.

'Motif 3' was developed through the Ministry of Science and ICT's independent AI foundation model project, and received 47 points in August by Artificial Analysis, a global AI model evaluation agency, ranking 10th among AI companies around the world, including OpenAI and Antropic, and 4th among Openweight models.

Real World is a physical AI startup that develops robotics foundation models for humanoids and industrial robots.

It supports the performance of complex real-world tasks that require precise manipulation of five fingers, such as inserting precision parts, fastening nuts to bolts, and cutting parts on a moving conveyor.