OpenAI chief Altman inks deal with South Korea's Kakao
Open AI CEO Sam Altman, right, and Kakao CEO Shina Chung attended the Kakao media day in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. The partnership between OpenAI and Kakao is significant as the US firm looks to form new alliances following the emergence of Chinese rival DeepSeek in the global AI industry.
Kakao, known for owning an online bank, South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app, and KakaoTalk, announced a collaboration with OpenAI to utilize ChatGPT for its upcoming artificial intelligence services. This move aligns Kakao with a global alliance led by OpenAI as competition in the AI sector intensifies.

Altman's company is involved in the Stargate drive, a project announced by US President Donald Trump, aiming to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States.
DeepSeek, a new player in the AI market, has garnered attention in Silicon Valley due to its high performance and perceived cost efficiency, challenging US developers to innovate further.
"We’re excited to bring advanced AI to Kakao’s millions of users and collaborate to integrate our technology into services that revolutionize how Kakao’s users communicate and connect," said Altman. Kakao’s CEO Shina Chung expressed enthusiasm about the "strategic collaboration" with OpenAI.
Meetings and Collaborations
During his visit to South Korea, Altman engaged in discussions with top South Korean chipmakers, Samsung and SK hynix, who are significant suppliers of advanced semiconductors for AI servers. Altman met with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung to explore potential collaborations on AI memory chips, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), and AI services.

Altman is also scheduled to meet with Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong to discuss industry trends and potential partnerships in the AI sector.
Industry Trends and Challenges
DeepSeek's performance has raised concerns in the tech industry, with allegations of reverse-engineering US technology, such as the AI behind ChatGPT. OpenAI cautioned that Chinese companies are actively trying to replicate their advanced AI models, highlighting the need for closer cooperation with US authorities.

The process of distillation, where developers of smaller models learn from larger ones by mimicking their behavior and decision-making patterns, has become a focal point in the competition between AI companies.
OpenAI is also facing challenges related to intellectual property violations, primarily surrounding the use of copyrighted materials in training its generative AI models.
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