LG Rolls outs 'K-EXAONE': South Korea Joins the Global Frontier AI Race with World-Class AI Model

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LG AI Research, a leading artificial intelligence research organization in South Korea, today announced the public release of its flagship AI model, 'K-EXAONE (K-EXAONE 236B-A23B, 236 billion parameters, with an Active 23 billion variant)', marking a significant milestone in the nation's ambition to become a global powerhouse in AI technology.

K-EXAONE has already demonstrated exceptional performance across international benchmarks, which has secured South Korea's position among the world's top AI models.

Outstanding Performance on Global AI Benchmarks
K-EXAONE achieved first place in 10 out of 13 benchmark tests under the first-stage evaluation criteria of South Korea's national artificial intelligence foundation model project, scoring an average of 72 points—the highest among five consortia models participating in this project-evaluated.

Additionally, it ranked 7th globally and 1st in South Korea on the Intelligence Index by Artificial Analysis, a leading global AI performance evaluation organization, with a score of 32 points.

Notably, K-EXAONE is the only model from a country other than the US or China in the global Top 10 of open-weight AI models, underscoring South Korea's growing influence in the AI landscape.

Technical Innovation: Hybrid Attention and High Efficiency
K-EXAONE is built on over five years of proprietary AI foundation model research by LG AI Research. Unlike models that rely solely on increasing data volume, K-EXAONE introduces a revolutionary architecture that enhances performance while significantly reducing training and operational costs.

Key innovations include:
- Hybrid Attention Mechanism: Combines "sliding window attention" (for detailed analysis) and "global attention" (for broad context), reducing memory and computational requirements by 70% compared to EXAONE 4.0.

- Advanced Tokenizer: Expanded vocabulary to 150,000 words and optimized phrase grouping, enabling K-EXAONE to process and retain documents 1.3 times longer than existing models.

- Multi-Token Prediction (MTP): Allows prediction of multiple tokens simultaneously, boosting inference speed by 150%.

With 236 billion parameters, K-EXAONE employs a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture with only 10% active parameters (23 billion). Nonetheless, it can process the longest context length among domestic models 260,000 tokens, equivalent to over 400 A4 pages.

Accessibility and Open Innovation
Despite its advanced capabilities, K-EXAONE is designed to be accessible.

LG AI Research emphasizes that the model can run on A100-grade GPUs, making it feasible for companies with limited infrastructure to adopt frontier-level AI.

Immediately following its release on the global open-source platform Hugging Face, K-EXAONE rose to #2 in global model trend rankings, reflecting strong international interest.

LG AI Research has also published a comprehensive Technical Report via Hugging Face, detailing the model's architecture, training methodology, and performance evaluations, reinforcing its commitment to transparency and open innovation.

Safety, Ethics, and Ecosystem Contribution
LG AI Research prioritizes safety and trustworthiness in AI development.

The model underwent rigorous evaluation through:
- Data Compliance Assessment: All training data was screened for copyright issues and compliance.
- Internal AI Ethics Committee: Established a risk classification system covering global ethical standards, social safety, Korean cultural context, and future risks.
- KGC-SAFETY Index: A custom metric measuring safety and reliability within the Korean sociocultural context, where K-EXAONE scored 96.2, outperforming GPT-OSS 120B (92.5) and Qwen3 235B (66.2).

Talent Development and Academic Collaboration
To foster the next generation of AI talent, LG AI Research is actively recruiting interns for the K-EXAONE project, offering over 50 domestic graduate students the opportunity to work on world-class AI foundation models.

The organization also collaborates with leading academic institutions, including Seoul National University, KAIST, and the University of Michigan, to advance next-generation AI technologies.

Free API Access Until January 28
From now until January 28, LG AI Research is offering free API access to K-EXAONE via the platform Friendli.ai at https://friendli.ai/model/LGAI-EXAONE/K-EXAONE-236B-A23B. This allows developers worldwide to build and deploy AI agents without requiring high-end infrastructure or deep coding expertise.

Leadership Statements
Jungkyu Choi, Head of Agentic AI Group at LG AI Research, stated:

"K-EXAONE demonstrates that through focused innovation and efficient design, we can compete with global giants even under resource constraints. We are confident that K-EXAONE will serve as a representative AI model for South Korea and contribute to the advancement of the global AI ecosystem."

Jinsik Lee, Head of EXAONE Lab at LG AI Research, stated:

"We developed the first version of K-EXAONE within the given time and infrastructure constraints, using only about half of our available data. This initial version serves as a starting point for advancing toward a frontier-level model. Moving forward, we will significantly enhance its performance and introduce a more refined version of K-EXAONE."

Kwang-mo Koo LG Corp. Chairman and CEO, emphasized in his 2026 New Year's message:
"At inflection points of new futures, we must transcend past success models and leap forward through new innovation. Innovation begins with change in thought and action, and with 'focus and concentration'. We must choose one uncompromising core value and dive deep to a level others deem impossible—this intense focus will redefine global standards and create exceptional value."

LG AI Research is committed to elevating South Korea to the ranks of the AI Top 3 nations by pushing the boundaries of AI technology and redefining global standards through relentless innovation.

'K-EXAONE' Technical Report will download at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.01739.

About LG Group 
LG Group is a leading global company representing South Korea, offering innovative products and services across various industries such as electronics, chemicals, telecommunications, and energy. Established in 1947, LG Group has grown into a world-renowned brand through its activities in these diverse fields. The company is committed to continuous research and development, focusing on innovation to enhance the quality of life for its customers. Emphasizing its role as a socially responsible enterprise, LG Group is striving to strengthen its competitiveness in the global market and achieve sustainable growth through its future portfolio in areas like AI, Bio, and Cleantech. The company is dedicated to realizing its vision of being a business that provides value to customers and society, pursuing this mission with unwavering determination. For more information, visit https://www.lgcorp.com

About LG AI Research
Launched in December 2020 as the artificial intelligence (AI) research hub of South Korea's LG Group, LG AI Research aims to lead the next epoch of AI, realizing a promising future by providing optimal research environments and leveraging state-of-the-art technologies. In 2021, LG AI Research unveiled EXAONE, a 300-billion-parameter multimodal AI model. Standing for "Expert AI for Everyone," EXAONE distinguishes itself from its peers through its sophisticated ability to seamlessly process both linguistic and visual data.

By leveraging its cutting-edge technological capabilities and maintaining a relentless pursuit of fundamental AI principles, LG AI Research is set to secure a competitive edge that surpasses global frontier models, continuing to create LG's unique and transformative value for the world. For more information, visit https://www.lgresearch.ai

SOURCE LG AI Research