BoneAI, a defense technology startup, said Tuesday that CEO Lee Do-kyung participated as a Korean defense startup representative at the "Korea-US Defense Cooperation Roundtable" held Sunday in Washington, D.C.
The event was hosted by the Stimson Center, a think tank specializing in international security, and was organized to discuss ways to expand cooperation between the two countries in shipbuilding and defense industries. Attendees included defense experts and industry opinion leaders from organizations such as the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Stimson Center officials, and key figures from Korea-US shipbuilding and defense industry expert groups, who explored ways to strengthen bilateral defense innovation cooperation.
During a session titled "Next-Generation Defense Cooperation: Integrating Startups into the Korea-US Defense Industrial Ecosystem," the core agenda focused on how to implement the DIU innovation model — an innovative U.S. defense acquisition framework — within Korea's defense ecosystem. Lee was the only Korean startup representative invited and joined the panel alongside U.S. defense experts.
Lee emphasized the strengths of Korea's manufacturing infrastructure and presented BoneAI's role and potential contributions as a defense deep-tech startup. "Korea has world-class infrastructure where materials, parts, and equipment, as well as major hardware design, manufacturing, and software development capabilities, are all concentrated within a 250-kilometer radius," Lee said. "By leveraging this geographical advantage, we can develop full-stack defense solutions in the shortest possible time and mass-supply the systems needed for both countries' security."
He added, "In line with the increasingly intelligent next-generation battlefield environment, we are aggressively investing in building mass production systems for key hardware such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as well as advancing deep-tech R&D." He continued, "With the speed and innovation unique to startups, we will become a strong pillar of the Korea-US defense alliance."
BoneAI is a comprehensive physical AI systems company that builds integrated solutions spanning robotics hardware, AI Brain technology that controls the hardware, and command-and-control (C2) operational software. Recognized for this full-stack technological capability, the company recorded approximately 3 billion won in revenue in 2025, its first year of operations, through government demonstration projects and local government contracts.