South Korea Wants Its Own OpenAI. It's Also Partnering With Every Major AI Lab

Seoul is signaling it doesn't want to bet on just one horse.

According to a CHOSUNBIZ report, South Korea is actively courting Anthropic as part of a broader strategy to diversify its AI partnerships beyond OpenAI. The reporting suggests Seoul is seeking multiple pathways into frontier AI capabilities — not replacing one vendor with another, but ensuring it has options across the rapidly evolving landscape.

The broader picture backs this up. Korea's government has been explicit: it wants "K-AI" companies that can stand alongside OpenAI and Anthropic on the global stage. In a recent interview with Financial News, Lim Moon-young, vice chair of Korea's National AI Strategy Committee, laid out the ambition directly. "The concrete outcome of the global 'Top 3 in Artificial Intelligence' goal is to foster K-AI companies that Koreans can proudly present to the world, just like OpenAI or Anthropic," he said. The government values OpenAI at $840 billion and Anthropic at $380 billion, and sees no reason Korea can't produce equivalents.

That doesn't mean Seoul is spurning partnerships. OpenAI has deep ties: Samsung and SK are building data centers for the company's Stargate initiative, and the Ministry of Science and ICT signed an MoU with OpenAI to explore next-generation AI infrastructure. Anthropic, meanwhile, is setting up a Seoul office in early 2026, with Dario Amodei calling Korea "at the forefront of AI innovation in Asia." Claude usage in Korea has grown 6x in four months, and a Korean software engineer currently ranks as the world's top Claude Code user.

The diversification push, if CHOSUNBIZ's reporting holds, fits a pattern governments worldwide are adopting: lock in multiple frontier vendors so you're not dependent on any single one. Korea's $735 billion sovereign AI initiative — the largest concentrated tech investment in history — explicitly includes both building domestic capacity and pursuing strategic collaborations with international AI developers.

This isn't Korea choosing sides. It's Korea making sure it has all the sides available.