OpenAI Makes An Agreement With Kakao, Discusses Stargate With SoftBank And Samsung

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (right) with Kakao CEO Chung Shina (photo: x @techsauceth)

JAKARTA OpenAI has officially entered into a partnership with the Kakao messaging application operator company in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) products for South Korea. This announcement follows another major collaboration announced by OpenAI with SoftBank in Japan earlier this week.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also held a separate meeting with Samsung Electronics, SoftBank, and Arm Holdings leaders in Seoul. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son revealed that they have discussed the AI Stargate data center project in the United States.

As part of its rapid tour in Asia, Altman previously announced a partnership with SoftBank for AI services in Japan on Monday and is scheduled to visit India on Wednesday 5 February to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Like SoftBank, Kakao will use OpenAI technology for its products. Kakao operates the largest messaging application in South Korea, KakaoTalk, with a domestic market share of 97%. In addition, Kakao has expanded to various sectors such as e-commerce, digital payments, and games. Despite placing AI as a new growth engine, Kakao is considered to be left behind in the AI race compared to its domestic competitor, Naver.

"We are very interested in AI and messaging," Altman said at a press conference with Kakao CEO Chung Shina, in Seoul. Altman also highlighted the importance of Korean energy, semiconductor and internet companies in the OpenAI ecosystem, along with the increasing demand for AI products in the country.

Altman added that many Korean companies will be the main contributor to the Stargate data center project, an OpenAI initiative with Oracle to build AI capacity in the United States. The project also received support from US President Donald Trump. However, Altman declined to provide further details on the cooperation.

Prior to the meeting on Stargate at Samsung's office, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, mentioned that potential cooperation with Samsung was also discussed. When asked if Samsung was asked to join the project, he simply replied, "We have very good discussions," without providing further details.

Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas, whose company is mostly owned by SoftBank, called Samsung an "extraordinary partner." However, Samsung himself declined to comment on the meeting.

Altman also met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Tuesday. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which manufacture high bandwidth memory chips for AI processors, are mentioned in discussions on comprehensive cooperation plans for AI chips and AI ecosystems.

When asked if Hynix's SK would join the Stargate project, Son refused to provide a concrete answer, simply mentioning that "no decision has yet been made."

Separately, Altman also stated that OpenAI is "actively considering" joining and investing in South Korea's national AI computing center project. The South Korean government previously announced plans to build a national AI computing center with public and private investments of up to 2 trillion won (IDR 22.4 trillion).