OpenAI partners with Kakao to expand its presence in Asia after its deal with SoftBank
OpenAI is expanding into Asia with major commercial deals. These deals will also help train its AI to better understand Asian-language content and users’ behavior, a key step in the future for doing more business on its own in these markets.
OpenAI announced a strategic partnership with Kakao today, the South Korean tech company that operates KakaoTalk, one of the most popular messaging apps in the region.
This move comes a day after SoftBank announced its own strategic collaboration with Kakao. OpenAI is a key component of the company’s commitment. The company has set aside $3 billion for OpenAI deployment across its group operations and subsidiaries. It also established a joint venture with SB OpenAI Japan to develop solutions tailored to Japanese enterprises.
The Kakao News for today was announced earlier this morning at an event in Seoul, co-led by Kakao’s CEO Shina Chung, and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman. It will initially cover Three projects
They plan to create a new Korean language assistant called Kanana, powered by OpenAI. OpenAI tech will also be integrated into KakaoTalk. Kakao will become a client of OpenAI and use ChatGPT Enterprise among its employees. SoftBank’s announcement is the latest in what appears to be a very deep-looking relationship. SoftBank, which has not yet confirmed its plans, is also looking to make a major investment into OpenAI. The two companies are also working together in theory on the Stargate Project to build AI superservers in the U.S. Altman told the press today that Korea is a “very impressive market”. “The adoption rate of AI in Korea has been remarkably high. There is a very conducive environment for AI application in various industries from energy to semiconductors to internet companies. It is a market which is very important to us, and is growing quickly.”
But, beyond that, both in the case of Kako, and SoftBank, these deals will benefit OpenAI on another level.
U.S.-based company continues to develop and train its Large Language Models. OpenAI has the opportunity to unlock new linguistic doors through its deals with major players from Korea and Japan. These companies have access to millions consumers in their respective countries.
It is important to note that DeepSeek is a major factor. If the Chinese AI company is more than a viral flash, and it doesn’t get lost in a sea legal issues about copyright, personal data, and more, it will be a clear signal to OpenAI, that a company outside the U.S. stole a march on English-language generative AI.
OpenAI must continue to expand its international reach, including its ability to work in other languages just as well as it does in English. It’s also notable because SoftBank saw an opening for a different route at one time.
In 2023, SoftBank announced a new business to capitalize on the opportunity of building for its native language in a world dominated by English-based natural language services. SB Intuitions was tasked with building LLMs and generative artificial intelligence in Japanese.
There is no clear answer as to what happened with this business. It may have never taken off, or the work might be rolled into a JV or something else. We have contacted the firm and will update when we know more. Altman is also using this opportunity to connect with other Korean tech giants. He also met with executives from Samsung Electronics and Korean semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix in order to discuss custom-designed chip-powered devices and AI-powered products. According to a local reportOpenAI joins other tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. All developing their own AI chips
SoftBank OpenAI Japan (19659016) The latest strategic partnership comes a day following OpenAI’s Joint venture announcement with SoftBank on Monday. SoftBank will spend $3 billion annually implementing the U.S. AI company’s solutions including ChatGPT Enterprise and OpenAI’s API, as well as agents products like Operatoracross its group companies. The Japanese tech giant has partnered with OpenAI to form “SB OpenAI Japan”a joint venture that will offer the U.S. AI start-up’s enterprise technology exclusively to large Japanese enterprises.
OpenAI announced its enterprise technology last week. Operatoris an agent who can perform tasks such as vacation planning and reservations for restaurants on the internet. O3 miniis the most cost-effective and latest reasoning model. ChatGPT creator also revealed a new capability called Deep Researchcan perform in-depth Internet research for complex tasks.
Arm (the chip designer acquired by SoftBank 2016 in the U.K.) will also use OpenAI to increase productivity. SoftBank’s StatementSoftBank’s statement reportedlyis in talks to lead an OpenAI funding round that could be worth up to $40 billion, and value the company as high as $300 billion.
Separately, OpenAI announced last month that it would team up with SoftBank, Oracle, and Microsoft to build multiple AI data centers in the U.S. through a joint venture named the Stargate Project. The project will begin with a large Texas data center. The three companies initially plan to invest $100 Billion in Stargate, and could contribute up to $500 Billion to the project over the next four years.
Kate Park, a reporter for TechCrunch with a focus in Asia on technology, startups, and venture capital, is a member of the team. She was previously a financial reporter at Mergermarket, covering M&As, private equity and venture capitalism.
View Bio
Ingrid, a writer and an editor for TechCrunch based in London, joined the company in February 2012.
Ingrid was a writer and editor for TechCrunch before joining the site in February 2012. She has also worked as a freelancer for publications like the Financial Times. Ingrid covers mobile media, digital advertising, and the intersections between these.
She is most comfortable in English, but she can also speak Russian and Spanish (in order of proficiency).
View Bio
