LG Uplus, FuriosaAI to Develop Enterprise AI Appliance

LG Uplus (032640) is partnering with AI semiconductor company FuriosaAI to develop a "sovereign AI appliance" that enterprises can deploy securely within their own infrastructure.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding for AI infrastructure collaboration on March 4 (local time) in Barcelona, Spain, during Mobile World Congress 2026, according to LG Uplus on March 8. LG Uplus Chief Technology Officer Lee Sang-yeop and FuriosaAI CEO Baek Jun-ho attended the signing ceremony.

Under the partnership, the companies will jointly develop a sovereign AI appliance. The device processes data exclusively within on-premises infrastructure without transmitting it to external clouds. It is designed to operate immediately with only power and network connections, eliminating the need for complex server configurations. The turnkey solution enables deployment without building separate AI infrastructure.

The sovereign AI appliance integrates LG Uplus's enterprise AI platform, LG AI Research's EXAONE model, and FuriosaAI's low-power, high-efficiency neural processing unit. The system enables rapid search and response capabilities even in closed network environments. FuriosaAI's second-generation NPU Renegade, which recently entered mass production, enhances inference performance for EXAONE 4.0. The infrastructure design also significantly reduces power consumption and related costs.

The companies expect the on-premises sovereign AI model will enable stable AI deployment in sectors with limited external cloud access, including public services, defense, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and research institutions.