Upstage and AWS Launch ‘AI Initiative’ for Nonprofits and Educational Institutions

San Jose, Calif., April 8, 2025 – Upstage and Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced the launch of the AI Initiative, a joint campaign to accelerate the adoption of generative AI across educational institutions and nonprofit organizations.

Through this initiative, Upstage and AWS will provide free access to AI technologies for qualified organizations. Upstage will offer complimentary API access to its full suite of AI models, including its proprietary LLM, Solar, and the OCR-powered unstructured data solution, Document AI. AWS will waive infrastructure and application development costs associated with deploying these AI solutions on its cloud platform.

The initiative aims to expand AI’s positive impact beyond the business sector and foster innovation in education, nonprofit services, and social welfare across South Korea.

Solar, Upstage’s flagship LLM trained on AWS infrastructure and Amazon SageMaker, offers powerful multilingual capabilities and operational efficiency. The 22B-parameter model, Solar Pro, uses an advanced Depth-Up Scaling (DUS) method that enhances GPU efficiency and manages complex tasks with ease.

Starting today, universities, nonprofit, and non-governmental organizations can apply for the program through the official Upstage website. Selected institutions will receive support to build generative AI applications using Solar on AWS from now through March 31, 2026. Organizations with limited AI experience will also have access to 1:1 mentoring, training, and hands-on resources.

Upstage is also expanding its presence in the academic sector through ongoing collaborations with top universities, including Seoul National University, KAIST, Sogang University, and Yonsei University. As part of the AI Initiative, Upstage will co-host a global LLM Hackathon with the Minerva University in the US to nurture the next generation of AI talent.

AWS will provide technical training for hackathon participants through its online learning platform, AWS Skill Builder, and hands-on workshops utilizing PartyRock, an experimental generative AI sandbox powered by Amazon Bedrock. These tools enable users with no programming experience to develop AI-powered applications and are being widely adopted for AI literacy education.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Upstage through the AI Initiative to deliver positive social impact and long-term value to Korean society,” said Jungwon Yoon, Head of Public Sector, AWS Korea. “Generative AI holds transformational potential in personalized education, predictive analytics, and nonprofit innovation. Together with Upstage, we are committed to building a scalable, inclusive ecosystem for meaningful AI adoption.”

“We are proud to join forces with AWS to lead in public-interest AI development,” said Sung Kim, CEO of Upstage. “Through this initiative, we hope to show that generative AI can drive real change not only in business but also in education and the nonprofit sector.”

This initiative follows the Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) signed by Upstage and AWS in June 2024. In December, Upstage launched its next-generation LLM, Solar Pro, on AWS. Today, Upstage models are available globally via Amazon Bedrock Marketplace, SageMaker JumpStart, and AWS Marketplace.

The AI Initiative is a testament to the power of combining AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure with Upstage’s advanced AI models to serve the public good.

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