OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Seoul on Wednesday as the country pushes to expand its artificial intelligence industry.
Sam Altman’s Visit To Seoul
According to the presidential office, Altman will meet Lee at the presidential office in central Seoul, reported Reuters.
OpenAI this year opened its first Seoul office, appointing former Google executive KyoungHoon Kim to lead operations.
The country has quickly become one of OpenAI’s most important markets, with the highest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers outside the U.S.
Altman is also expected to hold talks with executives from Samsung Electronics Co. (OTC:SSNLF) and SK Hynix, two of the world’s leading memory chipmakers supplying components critical to AI data centers.
OpenAI has already partnered with Kakao, the country’s dominant messaging platform, to develop localized AI services.
OpenAI’s Expanding Global Footprint
Altman’s visit comes as OpenAI’s global valuation climbs. Reports in August said the company is exploring a secondary stock sale that could value it at $500 billion, up from $300 billion earlier this year.
The prospective $500 billion valuation marks a 67% rise from OpenAI’s current $300 billion valuation, which was set during a record-breaking $40 billion funding round completed in April.
That round, spearheaded by SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBF) (OTC:SFTBY) with involvement from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), stands as the largest in venture capital history, according to PitchBook data.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) announced it would invest $100 billion to supply OpenAI with chips for its next-generation data infrastructure.
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