OpenAI's Altman to visit Korea to mark Kakao partnership

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OpenAI's Altman to visit Korea to mark Kakao partnership

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a press conference in Tokyo on Feb. 3. Japan's SoftBank Group will form a joint venture with the U.S. tech company to offer advanced artificial intelligence to businesses, SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son announced on the same day. [AFP/YONHAP]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a press conference in Tokyo on Feb. 3. Japan's SoftBank Group will form a joint venture with the U.S. tech company to offer advanced artificial intelligence to businesses, SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son announced on the same day. [AFP/YONHAP]

 
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will visit Korea on Tuesday to announce an AI partnership with domestic tech giant Kakao as well as meet with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.
 
For the first time, the U.S. AI firm is hosting a developer workshop in Seoul, inviting approximately 100 developers from leading Korean companies.
 

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This marks Altman’s third official visit to the country.
 
His first trip in 2023 was at the invitation of Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups, followed by a visit last year when he toured Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor facilities in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, and met with SK Chairman Chey.
 
Altman will formally announce OpenAI’s partnership with Kakao on Tuesday, although specifics hasn't been unveiled, according to industry insiders.
 
Kakao, the operator of Korea’s dominant messaging platform KakaoTalk, will hold a press conference at the same venue as the developer workshop, where CEO Chung Shin-a will outline the company's AI strategy. Kakao is set to launch its AI agent, Kanana, in the first half of the year.
 
OpenAI’s potential collaboration with SK Group could encompass AI memory chips developed by SK hynix as well as data center infrastructure with SK Telecom. Following Altman’s visit to Korea in January, SK Chairman Chey traveled to OpenAI’s California headquarters in June to explore business opportunities with him.
 
Altman’s itinerary reportedly includes meetings with Samsung Electronics executives, though it remains unclear whether he will meet Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong.
 
The 39-year-old ChatGPT founder visited Japan on Monday, where he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.
 
In an interview with Japanese daily Nihon Keizai, Altman stated his intention to develop AI-specific hardware “through partnerships" which could open new opportunities for hardware manufacturers like Samsung and LG.
 
OpenAI announced a joint venture with SoftBank Group named "SB OpenAI Japan" which will sell the U.S. AI company's enterprise technology known as ChatGPT Enterprise exclusively to companies in Japan.  
 
It also unveiled a new “deep research” tool for ChatGPT on Monday against disruptive advancements by Chinese AI developer DeepSeek.
 
Following his visit to Seoul, Altman is scheduled to travel to India.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]
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