Upstage announced Friday that it has finalized its acquisition of AXZ, the operator of the portal site Daum.
In January, Upstage and Kakao, the parent company of AXZ, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a stock swap under which Kakao would transfer its entire stake in AXZ to Upstage while acquiring a certain stake in Upstage. After roughly four months of due diligence, the two companies signed the final agreement and completed the acquisition process.
Upstage plans to use Daum to launch full-scale artificial intelligence (AI) services for individual consumers (B2C). The company will combine its proprietary large language model (LLM) "Solar" with Daum's search engine and vast content data. Through this, Upstage plans to upgrade Daum into a next-generation AI portal. Moving beyond keyword-based search, Daum aims to offer a contextual AI service that understands user intent and provides direct answers. Building on this foundation, the company intends to transform the entire service into a next-generation portal rebuilt around AI.
Upstage also expects the Daum acquisition to generate positive synergies for the public AI ecosystem expansion of its "Independent AI Foundation Model" project. The flagship national AI model being developed with Upstage's own technology will be embedded in Daum, allowing individual users to easily utilize the homegrown foundation model.
"This acquisition, which combines the technological capabilities of Upstage, a leading Korean AI company, with a national portal that has more than 30 years of history, will mark a symbolic turning point for the AI industry," Upstage CEO Sung Kim said.
