Hanwha's financial companies open AI center in San Franciso

South Korea’s seventh-largest conglomerate’s financial companies have opened a joint artificial intelligence center in San Francisco, a global technology hub, to accelerate AI-driven digitalization and innovation.

Hanwha Life Insurance Co., Hanwha General Insurance Co. and Hanwha Asset Management Co. celebrated the opening of Hanwha AI Center (HAC) in San Francisco last week, Hanwha Group announced on Monday. 

Hanwha’s three financial units plan to build a strong network with local academia, AI startups and investors and pursue joint projects through the AI center.

HAC will work with globally renowned computer scientist Andrew Ng, chairman and co-founder of Coursea Inc., a global online learning platform operator.

The AI center has also forged a partnership with Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI.

San Francisco is well known for its proximity to Silicon Valley, a global center of technological innovation located in the South Bay Area of California.

The new AI center is expected to play a role in developing innovative financial products, discovering new investment opportunities and leading open innovation to unlock new business opportunities for Hanwha financial units.

Hanwha Life has been reinforcing its AI capabilities since 2014 in its push to become a global financial services company.

The financial business of Korea’s chemicals-to-defense conglomerate is led by group Chairman Kim Seung-youn’s second son Kim Dong-won, who was promoted to become president-cum-chief global officer (CGO) of Hanwha Life in February 2023.

Hanwha Life operates overseas corporations in Vietnam, Indonesia and China. It has been actively incorporating AI and big data to drive digitalization.

Hanwha Asset Management also has global operations in the US and Singapore.

In October, Hanwha Asset applied with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list the Plus Korea Defense Industry ETF in the US.

Write to Sookyung Seo at skseo@hankyung.com

Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.