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Chinese AI Dominates South Korea's New Models
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News18•21-10-2026, 19:15
Chinese AI Dominates South Korea's New Models
- •A new study reveals that nearly half of the AI models released by South Korean developers this year were built on Chinese technology.
- •Alibaba's Qwen model alone accounted for 46.8 percent of this year's total derivatives on Hugging Face, outperforming US alternatives.
- •The heavy reliance on Chinese AI raises questions about South Korea's government-backed sovereign AI program and its independence goals.
- •Korean developers prefer Chinese models due to lower operating costs, diverse model sizes, multilingual support, and ease of customization.
- •Security remains a major concern, with over 80 percent of surveyed small and midsized businesses fearing potential data leaks.
Key Questions Answered
Nearly half, or 49.3 per cent, of the artificial intelligence models released by South Korean developers between January and August were built on Chinese foundation models, predominantly Alibaba’s Qwen.
The Chinese share of AI models in South Korea has climbed rapidly from just 1.2 per cent in 2023 and 22 per cent last year to 49.3 per cent, while the US share fell from 79.5 per cent over the same period.
Korean AI startups and services heavily utilize Chinese models primarily for high-traffic services where operating costs matter. Furthermore, developers cite Qwen's wide range of model sizes, support for 119 languages, and readily available customization tools as key appeals.
