OpenAI has announced a new partnership with Kakao to develop AI products for South Korea. This marks OpenAI's second major alliance in Asia this week, following a similar deal with SoftBank for AI services in Japan. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is on a tour of Asia, also met with leaders from Samsung Electronics, SoftBank, and Arm Holdings. The partnership with Kakao is seen as part of OpenAI's broader strategy to expand its AI presence in the region, with a focus on messaging and AI applications.

Kakao, which operates South Korea's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk, plans to integrate OpenAI's technology into its services as part of its push to grow its AI capabilities. Although Kakao has lagged behind rival Naver in the AI race, the company is positioning AI as a key growth engine. Altman highlighted the importance of South Korea's energy, semiconductor, and internet sectors in driving demand for AI products, noting that many local companies will play a role in OpenAI's Stargate data centre project in the US.

In addition to his work with Kakao, Altman met with executives from SK Group and Samsung to discuss AI chips and potential cooperation. SK Hynix, a key player in the production of AI processors, has been in discussions with OpenAI regarding collaboration in the AI ecosystem. Altman also indicated that OpenAI is actively considering involvement in South Korea's national AI computing centre project, which is expected to attract up to$1.4 billion in investment.

Following the announcement, Kakao's stock fell by 2%, after a 9% surge the previous day.