South Korea’s major defense giants have amassed roughly $69 billion in order backlogs as of late 2024, according to media reports. Seoul is also accelerating investment in advanced weapons systems and expanding its defense ties, particularly with Europe. With the new EU–South Korea Security and Defence Partnership in 2024 and growing exports of vehicles and artillery, the country has become the second-largest arms supplier to European NATO members.
Yet despite that enormous industrial footprint, remarkably few startups have emerged to match or challenge the incumbents. The country’s defense-tech startup scene is still nascent, exposing a wide gap between Korea’s manufacturing strength and its early-stage innovation.
Bone AI, a new startup based in Seoul and Palo Alto, California, launched earlier this year with an ambitious plan to build a fully unified AI platform that ties together software, hardware, and manufacturing.
The company develo
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