Kakao set to announce AI partnership with OpenAI

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s dominant mobile platform, is expected to unveil a business partnership with OpenAI to incorporate the technology of the generative AI ChatGPT developer into its first conversational AI app, Kanana, according to industry sources on Monday.

Chung Shina, chief executive of Kakao, is set to hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce its collaboration agreement with OpenAI. The two companies are understood to have finalized discussions on key issues about their partnership, including Kanana's global debut.

The conference will coincide with the visit to Korea by Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, who stunned the world with ChatGPT in 2022.

On Tuesday, Altman is scheduled to deliver a speech to some 100 Korean business leaders and startup developers.

His trip to Seoul comes shortly after DeepSeek roiled global markets last month. The Chinese generative AI offers similar capabilities to OpenAI’s ChatGPT but at a significantly lower cost.

Kakao is preparing to roll out Kanana, a conversational AI agent-integrated messenger app this year. The app is its first business-to-consumer AI service.

Rather than developing its own large language model, Kakao plans to adopt AI orchestration, or the process of coordinating different AI tools and systems so that they work efficiently.

The anticipation of a Kakao-OpenAI collaboration drove its shares sharply higher. Kakao's share price spiked 9.00% to close at 41,800 won, its highest point since December 2024.

During his visit to Korea, Altman will also meet with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss cooperation in the AI area, as well as with Samsung Electronics Co.'s top managers.

In January of last year, Altman inspected Samsung’s semiconductor production lines in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

In an interview with Nikkei last week, Altman said OpenAI is looking to develop AI-specific hardware that will replace smartphones.

Other senior managers of OpenAI will join him in his third trip to South Korea, as a leg of their Asia tour before heading to India.

In November, OpenAI signed a partnership agreement with Korea Development Bank to develop a data center in South Korea.

This year, OpenAI Is likely to set up its third Asian office in South Korea after Japan and Singapore, the sources added.

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Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.