By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) -OpenAI said on Tuesday it will develop artificial intelligence products for South Korea with chat app operator Kakao, unveiling a second major alliance with a high-profile Asian partner this week.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman also separately sat down with the leaders of Samsung Electronics, SoftBank and Arm Holdings in Seoul. SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son told reporters the Stargate AI data centre project in the United States had been discussed.
On a whirlwind tour through Asia, Altman announced a partnership with SoftBank for AI services in Japan on Monday and is, according to sources, scheduled to visit India on Wednesday where he is seeking to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Like SoftBank, Kakao said it would be using technology developed by the ChatGPT creator for its products.
Kakao operates South Korea’s dominant messaging app KakaoTalk, which has a whopping 97% domestic market share and has expanded into areas such as e-commerce, payments and gaming. It has positioned AI as a new engine of growth but analysts say it has lagged behind local rival Naver in the AI race.
“We are particularly interested in AI and messaging,” Altman told a joint press conference with Kakao CEO Chung Shina in Seoul.
He added that Korea’s energy, semiconductor and internet companies made the country an important market for OpenAI, with demand for AI products growing rapidly.
STARGATE, KOREA COMPUTING CENTRE
Altman also said many Korean companies will be important contributors to the Stargate data centre project, a venture between OpenAI and Oracle to build AI capacity in the United States that has been backed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Altman declined to elaborate, saying he wants to keep partnership conversations confidential.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting on Stargate at Samsung’s offices, SoftBank’s Son said potential cooperation with Samsung would be discussed. Later pressed on whether Samsung was asked to join the project, he said: “We had a very good discussion,” but did not elaborate.
Rene Haas, the CEO of British chip designer Arm, which is majority-owned by SoftBank, said Samsung was “a great partner”.
Samsung declined to comment on the meeting.
Altman also met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won earlier on Tuesday. Both SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics produce high bandwidth memory chips used in AI processors.
SK Hynix said discussions with Altman covered comprehensive cooperation plans for AI chips and the AI ecosystem.
Son declined to answer when asked by reporters if SK Hynix would join the Stargate initiative, saying only that no details have been decided.
Separately, asked whether OpenAI was looking at joining and investing in South Korea’s AI computing centre project, Altman said the U.S. company was “actively considering” such a move.
Last month, the South Korean government said it planned to build a national AI computing centre that would draw on investment from the public and private sectors worth up to 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion).
Kakao shares fell 2% on Tuesday after surging 9% a day earlier.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Jack Kim in Seoul, Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
