SK Networks introduces promising AI startups to investors

SK Networks, which has reinvented itself as an artificial intelligence (AI) company from its origins as a trading firm, hosted the SK Networks AI WAVE 2025 forum Wednesday to introduce promising startups from across the globe to investors and discuss the future of the AI ecosystem. At the second AI WAVE event, following its debut in 2023, SK Networks President and Chief Operating Officer Choi Sung-hwan delivered a keynote address, saying it is crucial to secure growth opportunities through active information exchange among innovative startups, industry leaders and prominent investors. "Through this event, we aim to present our AI investment portfolio that we have built since 2020 and to expand the ecosystem where technology, capital and vision are interconnected," he said. Choi also participated in a panel discussion with Sung Kim, CEO of Upstage — one of the AI startups backed by SK Networks and the only startup chosen for the government's Independent AI Foundation Model project. Upstage helps corporate clients build AI models and systems through its competitive large language model