OpenAI's Altman clinches deal with Kakao, second major Asian alliance this week

Record ID: 1955818

  • Title: OpenAI's Altman clinches deal with Kakao, second major Asian alliance this week
  • Date: 4th February 2025
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (FEBRUARY 4, 2025) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** OPENAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE SAM ALTMAN GETTING ON STAGE TO GREET KAKAO CEO CHUNG SHINA VARIOUS OF ALTMAN SHAKING HANDS WITH CHUNG VARIOUS OF ALTMAN AND CHUNG POSING FOR PHOTOS MOBILE PHONE SHOWING ALTMAN AND CHUNG JOURNALISTS TYPING ON COMPUTERS ALTMAN AND CHUNG SITTING ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) OPENAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAM ALTMAN, SAYING: “But I think we have a shared vision of what AI can do, and I am particularly, we are particularly interested in AI and messaging. I think there is really a rich thing to explore there that can improve the experience a lot for users and also excited that you wanted to view this as just the start and really explore many more things to do together.” ALTMAN AND CHUNG SITTING ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) OPENAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAM ALTMAN, SAYING: “Yeah it’s a great market for us. I think AI adoption here in general has been quite incredible. There's so much of (South) Korea that makes AI a good fit. If you think about all the industry here from energy to semiconductors to internet companies, it's really a sort of unbelievably strong place for the adoption of AI. It's an important market to us. It's growing super fast, love to do partnerships like this and excited to... really excited to focus more on Korea as a market for AI. It’s quite impressive, what's happening.” ALTMAN AND CHUNG SITTING ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) OPENAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAM ALTMAN, SAYING: “Yes. So on Stargate, there will be many Korean companies that are important contributors to the ecosystem there. I don't want to pre-announce anything but you can probably guess what some of the most important partnerships are there. Stargate is meant to be a truly global initiative like the number, the amount of companies in the supply chain that have to come together to make that happen is remarkable. And there's, you know, relative to our earlier comments about Korea, there is so much happening in Korea that will be critical to that. On other companies I don't want to comment and peer for that but yeah again we like, we like to keep partnership conversations, you know, sort of confidential until we're ready to announce them, talking to many companies all the time. Care a lot about Korea.“ KAKAO LOGO ON SCREN VARIOUS OF ALTMAN AND CHUNG POSING FOR PHOTOS
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2025 06:44
  • Keywords: Kakao OpenAI South Korea
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • City: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Company News Markets,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA001851704022025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:OpenAI said on Tuesday (February 4) 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.
    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.
    In a whirlwind tour through Asia, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman also announced a partnership with Japan's SoftBank Group on Monday (February 3) and is, according to sources, scheduled to visit India on Wednesday (February 5) 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.
    Altman also said many Korean companies will be important contributors to the Stargate data center project, a venture between OpenAI and Oracle ORCL.N to build AI capacity in the United States. He declined to elaborate, saying he wants to keep partnership conversations confidential.
    Last month, the South Korean government said it planned to build a national AI computing center plans for the Stargate data center project.
    "There is so much happening in Korea that will be critical for that," Altman said.
    (Production: Artorn Pookasook, Sophia Soo)
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