[Global AI Battleground: Korea]②Wave of Global Entrants... 82% Reliance on Foreign AI

After Google and OpenAI, Anthropic Joins the Race

Chinese and European Companies Also Preparing to Enter Korea

Global artificial intelligence (AI) companies are accelerating their entry into the Korean market by opening local offices and hiring staff. The rapid increase in AI adoption among individuals and businesses, as well as Korea's robust AI ecosystem—built on infrastructure such as semiconductors, data centers, and cloud services—are key attractions for global players. Facing the challenge of monetizing their services, these AI companies are expanding their focus in Korea from individual users to B2B (business-to-business) and B2G (business-to-government) markets.

According to the IT industry as of June 18, Anthropic has officially opened its Korean office—the company's fourth after Japan, India, and Australia—marking the start of collaboration with Korea's AI ecosystem. Previously, OpenAI established its Korean branch in September last year, launching products for businesses and educational institutions and increasing its market share. Canadian AI firm Cohere, founded by former Google engineers, announced its expansion into the Asian market and opened a Korean office in July last year.

In France, Mistral AI has begun recruiting staff in Seoul as it prepares to enter the Korean market. (Related Article: [Exclusive] 'European OpenAI' Lands in Korea... Mistral AI Posts Seoul Job Openings) In China, the startup MiniMax is targeting the Korean market by showcasing its AI technologies to local webtoon, short-form content, and web drama production companies. Another Chinese startup, ZhifuAI, has signed an MOU with the Korean venture capital firm TheVentures and is working to provide large language models (LLMs) to Korean companies.

AI Adoption Surging in Korea... Heavy Reliance on Foreign Services

AFP Yonhap News

Global AI companies are speeding up their entry into the Korean market because the country's rate of AI adoption and number of paid users are high compared to other major economies. According to Microsoft’s AI think tank, the Economy Institute, in its "Q1 2026 AI Diffusion Report" released last month, Korea’s generative AI usage rate reached 37.1%—a 6.4 percentage point increase from the previous quarter—ranking 16th globally. Notably, Korea recorded the fastest growth in AI usage rates worldwide during this period.

The AI tools most commonly used by Koreans are predominantly foreign-made.

In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Science and ICT in the fourth quarter of last year, targeting 2,500 Korean adults aged 19 to 69 nationwide, the most widely used generative AI platform was OpenAI’s ChatGPT (68.1%), followed by Google’s Gemini (13.8%). The combined user share of these two services was 81.9%. Monthly active user (MAU) trends for generative AI services also show a high share for foreign providers. According to WiseApp Retail’s survey, as of April, the most used generative AI applications in Korea were ChatGPT, Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, in that order. Their MAUs in April were 23.45 million for ChatGPT, 8.45 million for Gemini, and 2.41 million for Claude.

Korea: A Market of Opportunities for Global AI Companies to Boost Profitability

The growing demand for AI transformation (AX) among businesses and the public sector presents opportunities for companies targeting the B2B and B2G markets. Korea is home to key semiconductor manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and its well-developed wired and wireless network and data center infrastructure are advantageous for delivering seamless AI services. However, the Korean AI market’s reliance on foreign models, without strong domestic alternatives, is cited as an issue that local companies and the government need to address.

While Korean companies are developing their own LLMs, they have yet to achieve broad applicability, so many respond by integrating global general-purpose services like ChatGPT into their internal systems or adding AI features to their services based on proprietary models. Naver discontinued its AI chatbot service, "ClovaX," in April this year. ClovaX was powered by Naver’s proprietary LLM, HyperClovaX, but failed to establish a strong presence against competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini. As a result, Naver is now pursuing an "on-service AI" strategy, embedding AI features across its services—such as "AI Briefing" and "AI Tab"—instead of a standalone chatbot. Kakao is also offering both "ChatGPT for Kakao," which incorporates OpenAI’s ChatGPT into KakaoTalk, and "Kanana in KakaoTalk," which is based on its own model.

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