Naver has officially introduced HyperClova X Think, its latest homegrown generative AI model designed to boost Korea’s pursuit of sovereign AI capabilities. Unveiled on Monday, the model specializes in inference and reasoning, with a particular strength in understanding and processing the Korean language. While not as large in computational scale as systems developed by global players like OpenAI or China’s DeepSeek, HyperClova X Think stands out for its performance in Korean linguistic tasks.
According to Naver, the model demonstrated top-tier results in expert evaluations of Korean syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. It also outperformed other domestic and similarly scaled global open-source models in the KoBALT-700 benchmark, which measures language comprehension. The company has published a detailed technical report outlining the model’s architecture and capabilities, highlighting its role in advancing Korea’s AI ecosystem.
The release of HyperClova X Think follows a broader trend among Korean tech firms aiming to strengthen their presence in the inference AI space. Inference AI, which enables machines to reason, interpret, and draw conclusions, is widely regarded as a critical building block for next-generation AI agents. Naver’s latest move comes months after LG AI Research introduced its own inference model, Exaone Deep, signaling intensified local competition in this fast-growing field.
While Naver has not disclosed the parameter count of HyperClova X Think — a key indicator of model scale — analysts suggest it is likely similar to Exaone Deep and Alibaba’s QwQ-32B, both with around 32 billion parameters. This places the model far below giants like DeepSeek’s R1, which has 671 billion parameters. Still, despite its comparatively modest size, Naver’s model has demonstrated superior performance in Korean language benchmarks.
HyperClova X Think achieved a leading score of 48.9 on the KoBALT-700, a rigorous benchmark developed by the Department of Linguistics at Seoul National University to assess Korean language understanding in large language models. It outperformed Exaone Deep’s score of 33 and QwQ-32 B’s 32.4, and also ranked first across eight different Korean language indicators, including the HAERAE benchmark.
The KoBALT-700 and HAERAE benchmarks focus on a model’s ability to understand syntax, semantics, and sentence structure — crucial elements for accurate communication and task execution in Korean. Naver emphasized that this advanced linguistic capability makes HyperClova X Think a strong candidate for AI agent services, where nuanced user interaction is essential.
In addition to its linguistic strengths, HyperClova X Think has demonstrated early multimodal capabilities. The model was able to correctly interpret visual data such as diagrams and graphs from Korea’s college entrance biology exams, identifying correct answers without being explicitly designed for visual reasoning. Naver researchers noted that this indicates strong potential for future expansion into more sophisticated multimodal systems.
Naver also plans to open-source the model, aiming to foster innovation within Korea’s AI ecosystem. The company previously released a lightweight model, HyperClova X Seed, which has already surpassed 500,000 downloads since its launch in April. By making its models publicly available, Naver hopes to accelerate adoption and encourage local developers to build on top of its technology.
Looking ahead, Naver intends to integrate HyperClova X Think across its suite of services, including search, e-commerce, and digital payments. Company officials stressed that owning and controlling its own AI models is key to delivering competitive, AI-driven user experiences. However, industry experts caution that Naver must now translate its technical achievements into real-world applications to stand out in a crowded global market.
