After Nvidia, Even OpenAI and Anthropic... "Love Calls" to Naver and Kakao

Jensen Huang, Then Sam Altman to Visit Korea
First Official Meeting with Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is visiting Naver and Kakao to discuss potential cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite having only a two-day, one-night itinerary, he will meet with Jeongshin A, CEO of Kakao, to discuss concrete ways to scale up the current joint business. He also plans to have his first official meeting with Choi Sooyoun, CEO of Naver, to explore possible avenues for collaboration. Senior executives from Anthropic, one of OpenAI's main competitors, will also visit Korea next week to meet with Naver. This demonstrates that global AI companies are intensifying their competition to form partnerships within Korea's AI ecosystem.

Sam Altman, CEO and founder of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, attended the "Kakao Media Day" held on the 4th at Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, and had a conversation with Jeongshin A, CEO of Kakao. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

According to the IT industry on June 12, Altman is scheduled to arrive in Korea on the evening of June 14 and depart on June 15, meeting with the management teams of Korea’s leading platforms, Naver and Kakao, during his short visit. This marks his first return to Korea in eight months since October of last year. His itinerary will begin at 9 a.m. on June 15 at Kakao's Pangyo Agit office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where he will meet with Jeongshin A, CEO of Kakao.

Altman and Jeongshin A plan to discuss expanding cooperation in existing AI ventures, including strengthening the integration between KakaoTalk’s conversation context and ChatGPT, which is a core service of Kakao. Kakao has been working with OpenAI since last year to develop "ChatGPT for Kakao," focusing on expanding its features and services. An industry insider commented, "There will be discussions on deepening the partnership to prepare AI-optimized software by combining OpenAI’s world-class AI models with the user base and operational experience Kakao has built over the years."

On the same day, Altman will also meet with Choi Sooyoun, CEO of Naver, at Naver 1784 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. This will be the first official meeting between the two companies' CEOs. A Naver representative described the meeting as an "introductory session to explore various business opportunities." Since Naver has developed its own AI infrastructure, including cloud and data centers, and operates a comprehensive IT ecosystem across portals, finance, commerce, and content, the meeting is expected to identify possible areas of synergy between the two companies.

Naver, which has recently strengthened its cloud data business, is emerging as a potential partner for global AI companies. On June 16, Anthropic’s Caitlin Reiss, Head of Platform Engineering, and Angela Jang, Head of Product, will visit Naver 1784 to host a "Tech Meetup" for Naver employees. The event will focus on engineering, with Anthropic sharing its technical expertise, and participation from Naver’s development teams is expected.

Anthropic recently opened its Korea office and appointed Choi Kiyoung as CEO, completing its preparations to enter the Korean market. Anthropic is expanding its presence in Korea by running "Glasswing," a collaboration project based on its security-focused AI model "Claude Mythos."

On June 8, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, also visited Naver 1784 to meet with Chairman Lee Haejin and discuss cooperation on building AI factories.

Industry experts view the consecutive visits of global AI leaders to Korea as a sign of their willingness to seek collaboration opportunities in the country, which is rapidly expanding its data center, cloud, and sovereign AI markets. Korea is becoming increasingly important, as it not only has high AI demand and robust infrastructure, but the government is also actively pursuing policies to make the country one of the world’s top three AI powers. For AI companies, partnering with Korean firms offers access to valuable data and service ecosystems, while Korean companies gain the benefit of leveraging the world’s top-tier AI models, aligning the interests of both sides.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.