Kyivstar taps Google Gemma to power sovereign AI model

Ukrainian operator Kyivstar and the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation have picked Google’s open-source Gemma framework as the base for a national large language model. Built with the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence, the system is meant to handle Ukrainian language and dialects, reflect local history and culture, and keep sensitive data stored and processed inside Ukraine.

Officials said Gemma was chosen after a security-focused technical review, with attention to how well it already manages Ukrainian text and how tightly it can be controlled during further training to limit linguistic and ethical risks. Kyivstar will fine-tune Gemma on curated national datasets and use dedicated benchmarks, with plans to deploy the model across government, education, healthcare and finance. The move adds another link to US tech and capital markets, following Kyivstar’s earlier listing on the Nasdaq exchange.