Sovereign AI and ROK-U.S. Cooperation

executive summary: This essay examines South Korea's evolving sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and assesses how it seeks to balance technological autonomy with technological cooperation with the U.S. main argument The Lee Jae-myung administration's pursuit of sovereign AI reflects an effort to secure national control over critical technologies—semiconductors, data infrastructure, foundation models, and defense AI. But unlike China's indigenous innovation strategy that pursues autonomy through isolation, South Korea seeks technological resilience through trusted interdependence. By evaluating South Korea's development and strategies in AI and related technologies through an own-cooperate-access framework, we can see that Seoul's approach represents a distinct form of "cooperative sovereignty" that can be compatible with its U.S. alliance partner. South Korea excels in memory semiconductors and foundry capacity but lags in AI accelerators, cloud infrastructure, and defense AI. Cooperation on R&D, supply chains, and the establishment of shared governance norms through mechanisms within the U.S.-led alliance architecture can reinforce democratic values and regional stability. policy implications • If South Korea strengthens its ownership of core technologies, such as AI chips, sovereign cloud infrastructure, and large language models, then it will reduce the country's exposure to supply chain coercion and enhance its strategic autonomy. • If South Korea and the U.S. institutionalize joint R&D under the Critical and Emerging Technologies Dialogue and reciprocal procurement agreements, then both countries can expand their markets while reinforcing allied technological leadership. • By integrating civil-society and private-sector voices into its AI governance framework, Seoul can prevent state overreach and maintain transparency consistent with democratic norms. • If South Korea balances domestic resilience with alliance cooperation, then its approach to sovereign AI could serve as a model for other middle powers navigating great-power technological competition.