October 2, 2025
SEOUL – President Lee Jae Myung met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the US entrepreneur behind the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, as the latter visited Seoul on Wednesday. The two reached tentative agreements to set up two new data centers needed to meet Korea’s growing artificial intelligence demands.
At the meeting held at the presidential office in Seoul, Lee and Altman exchanged their views on South Korea’s ambition to become an AI hub for the Asia-Pacific region. Also attending the meeting were Lee Jae-yong, executive chair of chipmaker Samsung Electronics, and Chey Tae-won, chair of SK Group, the parent company of chipmaker SK hynix.
Revealing that he was one of Korea’s many ChatGPT subscribers, Lee said Altman “opened up a whole new world, which could be either delightful or dangerous,” and asked that Altman make a world that is the former. ChatGPT’s popularity has recently grown sharply in Korea, where its monthly active users exceeded 20 million in August.
Altman responded that he was excited to support South Korea’s AI ambitions and needs, and to develop AI to its full potential to bring it to the world.
During Altman’s visit to Seoul, South Korea’s Science Ministry and OpenAI signed a nonbinding agreement under which OpenAI would support South Korea’s AI transformation and help foster its AI ecosystem.
To enable this, OpenAI will join hands with Samsung Electronics to build a 20-megawatt data center in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and with SK hynix to build another one with 20-megawatt capacity in South Jeolla Province, Lee’s national policy aide Kim Yong-beom told reporters in a briefing.
This would be in line with the June announcement that Amazon Web Services would team up with SK to build a data center to meet AI demands.
Such efforts are part of the Lee administration’s plan to create an “AI expressway,” setting up AI-related infrastructure nationwide, Kim said, adding that Google is another US tech giant in the early stages of talks with South Korea over the AI infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the agreement signed between Korea’s Science Ministry and OpenAI outlines plans to help South Korea use AI to spur balanced growth outside Seoul, expand adoption of the technology in the public sector and foster startups specializing in artificial intelligence, the presidential office said.
Kim said that the Lee administration has persuaded OpenAI to develop the locations of the new data centers in remote regions.
Lee’s office added that such a plan will accelerate South Korea’s bid to become one of the top three global AI powerhouses and support the spread of AI technology.
Kim hinted at discussing the ease of firmly-held regulations concerning the separation of industrial and financial capital, which has curbed the concentration of South Korean conglomerates’ power.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
