The battle for supremacy in artificial intelligence (AI) is heating up on two major fronts: the defense sector and the global tech industry. In South Korea, defense giants and IT powerhouses are racing to develop sovereign AI systems that could redefine the country’s military capabilities. Meanwhile, across the globe, an all-out talent war is erupting as tech giants like Meta, OpenAI, and innovative startups like HelloSky fiercely compete to recruit the brightest minds in AI, with signing bonuses reaching astronomical figures.
On August 17, 2025, KT Corp., one of South Korea’s leading telecommunications and IT companies, made headlines by launching a recruitment drive specifically targeting professionals with experience in defense IT software development and defense ICT project planning. According to reporting by Maeil Business Newspaper, this move is highly unusual for an IT company, signaling KT’s serious intent to commercialize defense AI and expand its influence into the traditionally exclusive defense industry. An unnamed IT industry insider told Maeil Business Newspaper, “It is unusual for an IT company to directly recruit defense industry talent. This shows KT’s strong commitment to commercializing defense AI.”
KT’s ambitions are underscored by its strategic partnership with Palantir, a global leader in defense AI. In March 2025, KT CEO Kim Young-seop traveled to the United States to meet with Palantir’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Karp, to cement plans for cooperation. Palantir, already contracted by the U.S. Department of Defense for the AI-driven “Titan” military operations support system, brings world-class expertise to the table. The collaboration is expected to accelerate KT’s efforts to develop AI projects related to defense battlefield and weapon systems.
Not to be outdone, Hanwha Systems—a heavyweight in the Korean defense and space IT sector—has been doubling down on its push for defense AI independence. In July 2025, Hanwha inked a business agreement with Naver Cloud, Seoul National University, KAIST, and POSTECH to create a robust defense AI ecosystem and kicked off research and development on an advanced battlefield situation awareness AI model for air defense. The goal: to optimize decision-making by fusing real-time data collection with homegrown AI models, enabling the Korean military to analyze threats on the fly and select optimal weapon systems. As a Hanwha Systems official explained to Maeil Business Newspaper, “In the field of defense AI, relying on foreign AI technology would make us vulnerable to various variables such as security issues including confidential data leakage and unauthorized collection, limitations in implementing Korea-specific solutions and information control, and dependence on foreign services.”
LIG Nex1, another major player, is taking a different tack—focusing on partnerships and global collaboration. In April 2025, LIG Nex1 joined forces with U.S. defense AI company Anduril, aiming to advance guided weapons, manned-unmanned teaming systems, and AI-based operating systems. The company is also in discussions with LG AI Research to deploy the large language model Exaone in its systems, reflecting a trend toward integrating cutting-edge AI across various defense platforms.
This surge of activity in South Korea’s defense AI sector comes at a time when the global arms race in military AI is accelerating. According to a report by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, China is making rapid strides in AI R&D, propelled by its military-civil fusion policy and a national goal of achieving global AI leadership by 2030. The United States, meanwhile, is advancing its Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) project, which aims to unify combat information across land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains—a move designed to prepare for the wars of the future.
Market analysts are taking note. Grand View Research projects that the global defense AI market will soar from $9.31 billion in 2024 to $19.29 billion by 2030, underscoring the immense stakes and growing demand for advanced AI capabilities in military applications.
But the defense sector isn’t the only arena where AI is fueling fierce competition. In Silicon Valley and beyond, the race to recruit elite AI researchers has reached fever pitch. As reported by Fortune, Meta is now offering jaw-dropping $100 million signing bonuses to lure top talent away from rivals like OpenAI. The tech industry, paradoxically, is witnessing both waves of layoffs and a relentless poaching of AI experts, as companies scramble to retain their edge in a rapidly evolving field.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to keep a personal list of coveted AI researchers for his Superintelligence Labs, personally overseeing recruitment strategies to ensure Meta secures the brightest stars. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman recently voiced his own concerns about the scarcity of qualified candidates, telling CNBC, “The bet, the hope is they know how to discover the remaining ideas to get to superintelligence—that there are going to be a handful of algorithmic ideas and, you know, medium-sized handful of people who can figure them out.”
Amid this high-stakes scramble, HelloSky is emerging as a disruptor. Founded by Alex Bates, HelloSky leverages a GenAI-powered platform to map candidates’ real-world impact, uncovering hidden AI talent that might otherwise be overlooked by traditional Silicon Valley networks. In April 2025, the startup closed a $5.5 million oversubscribed seed round, attracting investment from Caldwell Partners, Karmel Capital, True, Hunt Scanlon Ventures, and angel investors from Google and Cisco Systems.
HelloSky’s platform doesn’t just scan resumes. It analyzes code contributions, peer-reviewed research, and trending open-source projects to prioritize candidates based on measurable impact rather than flashy credentials. “There’s different biases and filters about people’s pedigree or where they came from. But if you could truly map all of that and just give credit for some people that maybe went through alternate pathways [then you can] truly stack rank,” Bates told Fortune. The approach is reminiscent of the “Moneyball” strategy in baseball—using data to find undervalued talent who deliver outsized results.
Furthermore, HelloSky’s algorithms can detect when candidates embellish their experience or, conversely, fail to adequately promote their achievements. “Maybe they said they had a billion-dollar IPO, but [really] they left two years before the IPO. We can surface that,” Bates explained. “But also we can give credit to people that maybe didn’t brag sufficiently.” This nuanced approach helps companies discover their “diamond in the rough,” as Bates puts it.
Looking ahead, Bates predicts that search firms and internal recruiters will increasingly turn to next-generation behavioral assessments to better match candidates to roles. “If you can really target well and not waste so much time talking to the wrong people, then you can go much deeper into these next-gen behavioral assessment frameworks. I think that’ll be the wave of the future.”
As AI becomes more embedded in both the defense and commercial sectors, the race for talent and technological leadership shows no signs of slowing. Whether on the battlefield or in the boardroom, the ability to attract, develop, and deploy top-tier AI expertise could well determine the winners and losers of the coming decade.
