SK Telecom Moves to Join Anthropic's 'Glasswing' Security Consortium

SK Telecom is moving to join Glasswing, an AI security consortium led by Anthropic.

The decision to revive its bid — after previously stepping back from the effort — appears to have been influenced by South Korea's recent formal entry into the Trusted Access for Cyber Security program, or TAC, an OpenAI-led security initiative. The development signals that the bar for joining security consortiums run by global AI companies has lowered, prompting SK Telecom to renew its push.

Attention is also turning to whether the South Korean government, whose own Glasswing membership drive had stalled, will now make progress on joining the group.

SK Telecom has recently decided to pursue membership in Glasswing, according to reporting by The Herald Business.

Glasswing is a security consortium that Anthropic formed with select companies and institutions for joint research and verification of AI-based cyber threats and defensive technologies. The group currently has 52 members, including global tech giants Google, Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia, as well as the AI Security Institute under the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

SK Telecom had previously abandoned its Glasswing bid. Its decision to revive the effort appears to stem directly from South Korean government agencies and public institutions formally joining TAC, the OpenAI-led cybersecurity initiative.

Participation in security consortiums led by global AI companies such as Glasswing had reportedly been subject to U.S. government approval. That interpretation underpins the view that South Korea's entry into TAC itself reflected U.S. acquiescence.

An OpenAI Korea official, responding to a question about whether the U.S. government had sanctioned South Korea's TAC membership, said: "Of course."

SK Telecom is also a strategic investor in Anthropic, a fact that industry observers say makes its Glasswing membership a strong possibility.

SK Telecom invested $100 million in Anthropic in August 2023, when the sum was equivalent to about 130 billion won. Its current 0.3 percent stake is estimated to be worth close to 2 trillion won.

"Discussions are ongoing and nothing has been decided yet," SK Telecom said.

As SK Telecom's Glasswing membership comes into clearer focus, attention is also turning to the government's own push to join the consortium, an effort that has so far seen little progress.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has signaled it intends to pursue both building domestic AI security capabilities and securing a seat in Glasswing.

At a press briefing on May 29, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said Japan had joined both GTAC and Anthropic's consortium and was testing multiple AI models beyond Mitos. "We will set a short-term strategy while preparing the capabilities that South Korea can develop on its own," he said.