Samsung, OpenAI, and SoftBank chiefs hold high-stakes AI summit in Seoul

OpenAI and Japan’s SoftBank convened in Seoul on Tuesday for a high-profile AI summit.

Samsung Electronics Executive Chair Lee Jae-yong, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son held a closed-door meeting at Samsung’s Seocho District office building in southern Seoul to discuss possible collaborations on AI, according to industry sources.

Son was spotted by local media entering the Samsung building on Tuesday afternoon.

A Samsung Electronics spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

 

The meeting between Lee and Altman was anticipated as the OpenAI founder is visiting Seoul to meet with an array of Korean conglomerate chiefs on Tuesday over potential partnerships, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han, but Son’s joining was a surprise to the industry. The trio is expected to discuss the Stargate project, a joint venture with a combined investment of $500 billion by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to build new AI infrastructure in the United States.

Altman briefly mentioned Stargate when pressed about other potential partnerships with Korean companies outside of Kakao at the messenger operator’s press event held in central Seoul on Tuesday, which formalized the two companies’ collaboration.

“I don’t want to preannounce anything but you could probably guess what some of the most important partnerships are there,” Altman said.“Stargate is meant to be a truly global initiative but the number of the amount of companies in the supply chain that have to work together to make that happen is remarkable […] There’s so much happening in Korea that will be critical for that.”

With OpenAI and SoftBank each leading on the technological and financial fronts, the project includes key tech partners such as British chip designer Arm, owned by the Japanese bank, as well as Microsoft and Nvidia. Industry insiders believe the project still requires expertise in building large-scale infrastructure and investment in semiconductors, and Samsung Electronics is under consideration as a potential partner to fill this gap as a leading chipmaker.

Other possible collaborations between OpenAI and Samsung involve developing AI-specific hardware, which Altman mentioned could be done “through partnerships” in an interview with Japanese daily Nihon Keizai on Monday.

For its collaboration with Kakao, OpenAI’s advanced models will be integrated into the Korean platform’s upcoming AI agent app Kanana, which will be released in the first half of this year, as well as KakaoTalk and multitude of its other services.

ChatGPT Enterprise, an advanced AI tool set for business-to-business (B2B) market, will be deployed within Kakao’s corporate system to boost productivity.

Moreover, the two companies will co-develop a localized AI product for Korea, although the decision is still at the discussion stage and no specifics have been mentioned on the project’s format, the investment amount or a deadline.

Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a described the collaboration as a “synergetic” partnership, with Kakao utilizing OpenAI technologies to “deliver innovative, personalized AI services to consumers,” while the U.S. firm can use the Korean company as a bridge to expand into a local market characterized by dominant local platforms.

Altman’s visit to the country comes in a timely manner amid the emerging hype surrounding the debut of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s low-cost AI model is just as competent as OpenAI’s with fewer, less-advanced processors.

Upon questions from journalists about brewing news regarding OpenAI’s involvement in Korea, such as potential investment in the country’s AI data centers or the establishment of a local subsidiary, Altman did not directly comment, but emphasized that Korea is “an incredibly important market and you should expect to see us more.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]