Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has established a strategic partnership with South Korean technology company Kakao, as his firm navigates increased competition following DeepSeek’s emergence in the global artificial intelligence market.
Kakao, which operates South Korea’s dominant messaging platform KakaoTalk along with major banking and taxi-hailing services, announced on Tuesday it would integrate ChatGPT into its new AI offerings. This alliance forms part of OpenAI’s broader strategic positioning within the industry, supported by the Stargate initiative – a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment program announced by President Donald Trump.
The emergence of DeepSeek has created significant ripples in Silicon Valley, with industry observers noting its impressive performance capabilities and competitive cost structure. This development has prompted increased scrutiny of U.S. AI development strategies.
During his Seoul visit, Altman expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: “We’re excited to bring advanced AI to Kakao’s millions of users and work together to integrate our technology into services that transform how Kakao’s users communicate and connect,” adding that “Kakao has a deep understanding of how technology can enrich everyday lives.”
Kakao’s CEO Shina Chung reciprocated the sentiment, expressing excitement about their “strategic collaboration” with OpenAI.
Altman’s Korean agenda extended beyond Kakao, including meetings with semiconductor giants Samsung and SK hynix, crucial providers of AI server components. He met with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung to discuss AI memory chip collaboration, particularly regarding high bandwidth memory (HBM). A meeting with Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong was also scheduled.
Samsung’s memory business executive vice president, Jaejune Kim, recently acknowledged they were “monitoring industry trends considering various scenarios” in response to questions about DeepSeek.
The competitive landscape has grown more complex with allegations that DeepSeek has reverse-engineered leading U.S. AI technology, including ChatGPT’s capabilities. OpenAI recently raised concerns about Chinese companies attempting to replicate their advanced AI models, leading to enhanced cooperation with U.S. authorities.
OpenAI has highlighted the use of “distillation” by competitors – a process where smaller models are developed by learning from larger ones, similar to student-teacher relationships. However, OpenAI itself faces multiple intellectual property challenges, particularly regarding the use of copyrighted materials in training its AI models.
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