Korea’s AI alliances with global tech giants spotlighted ahead of APEC CEO Summit

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, left, shakes hand with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a signing ceremony for a letter of intent at the Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul, Oct. 1. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

As the world transitions to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, is set to take center stage in the global business community as the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit brings together top business moguls to spotlight AI as a key driver of economic growth.

In recent years, Korean businesses have been scrambling to expand their reach into AI, forming partnerships with global tech giants and seeking to play a pivotal role in reshaping the future of industry and trade across the Asia-Pacific.

Since 2018, Samsung has rapidly expanded its AI footprint, establishing dedicated research centers around the world, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Russia, while discussing partnerships with U.S. tech giants Google and Microsoft.

Samsung deepened its collaboration with Microsoft this year and integrated Microsoft’s generative AI platform, Copilot, into Samsung’s latest lineup of smart TVs, monitors and Galaxy devices, allowing users to access the platform directly through voice or remote commands.

Last week, the company rolled out its AI-oriented extended reality headset, the Galaxy XR, which gained the global tech world’s attention as a product jointly developed with Google and Qualcomm.

Last month, Samsung and SK Group announced landmark partnerships with OpenAI to supply cutting-edge memory chips and collaborate on the development of AI data centers for OpenAI’s Stargate project.

SK Broadband CEO Park Jin-hyo, left, and Amazon Web Services Vice President of Infrastructure Services Prasad Kalyanaraman shake hands after signing a partnership agreement to build an artificial intelligence data center in Ulsan, June 20. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-suk

SK Group, meanwhile, will expand its collaboration with OpenAI, spanning from infrastructure, model development and applications to research on next-generation AI computing solutions.

The group is also building domestic AI data centers, including a new megafacility codeveloped with Amazon Web Services (AWS). It signed a partnership with AWS in June to build the hyperscale data center, with SK handling the external infrastructure and AWS responsible for internal functions such as implementing and operating servers.

KT, one of Korea’s largest telecom providers, has deepened its relationship with Microsoft, signing a strategic partnership last year to jointly invest 2.4 trillion won over five years in AI and cloud innovation. This alliance aims to develop Korean-tailored AI solutions and sovereign cloud services, establish a specialized AI transformation company, and nurture thousands of AI professionals through joint research and development and training.

Earlier this year, KT also inked a partnership agreement with Palantir, becoming its first Korean premium partner. Through the alliance, the two companies aim to integrate Palantir’s advanced AI solutions with KT’s cloud and network infrastructure, delivering secure, industry-tailored AI services to the Korean market while jointly developing a local AI workforce and business opportunities.

In the manufacturing industry, POSCO Group and its information technology arm, POSCO DX, have joined forces with AWS to automate steelmaking and logistics using AI, signing a partnership with the U.S. tech giant in July to codevelop AI-powered engineering automation platforms and intelligent factory solutions.

POSCO DX will leverage AWS’ generative AI tools and cloud infrastructure to develop an engineer agent that automates core engineering, coding and design processes.

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, second from left, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, center, pose for a photo during their meeting at the Nvidia office in Taiwan, May 22. From left are Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, Lee, Huang, Nvidia Executive Vice President Jay Puri and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won. Courtesy of Naver Cloud

Internet giants Naver and Kakao have also expanded their presence in the AI business through cross-border AI partnerships and services.

Naver has developed full-stack AI through multinational collaborations. Its alliances with Aramco Digital, Intel and Nvidia focus on sovereign cloud platforms and next-level AI hardware development tailored to global needs.

Last year, Naver Cloud and Intel agreed to jointly establish an AI research center with top Korean universities and startups to develop chips and software based on Intel’s Gaudi AI accelerator.

Meanwhile, Kakao became the first Korean member of the AI Alliance, a global consortium launched by IBM and Meta to promote open-source AI development.

Kakao also entered into a landmark strategic partnership with OpenAI in February. Under the alliance, Kakao will integrate ChatGPT into its flagship messaging platform KakaoTalk, making generative AI-powered search and summary features available to its users. The codeveloped product, ChatGPT for Kakao, is slated to launch in the coming weeks.