As global big tech companies seek to dominate the domestic artificial intelligence (AI) market, voices of concern are growing among domestic AI companies.
They believe that global AI companies have established a bridgehead for entering the domestic market by securing partners with the most important assets in entering the domestic market, such as telecommunications and data centers.
On the 10th, KT announced that it would jointly invest approximately 2.4 trillion won with Microsoft (MS) in the domestic AI and cloud market over five years. Last month, SKT unveiled its strategy to capture the domestic and overseas AI search market through technological cooperation with U.S. AI search company Perplexity.
Regarding this cooperation, a company representative said, “Telecommunications companies have announced their intention to continue research and development with various domestic companies, but it seems as if they will do big business with big tech companies and only share small business with them.” (Overseas AI “If large amounts of data from telecommunication companies are connected to the model, there is a possibility that the domestic ecosystem will be shaken,” he pointed out.
Another company representative said, “In a situation where AI technology is rapidly changing, cooperation with a global software (SW) vendor may be a reasonable strategy for a large company.” He added, “However, AI cooperation does not involve only the AI engine, but also data learning. “I can’t help but think about our country’s sovereign AI problem,” he said.
Domestic AI companies and startups are feeling a sense of crisis. As AI is not limited to a specific industry or domain, it is expected that the development and use of large language models (LLM) will continue to advance into the B2B (corporate market) and B2B (consumer) markets.
They expressed concern that the AI market, which is in its infancy, may become like the domestic cloud market dominated by foreign companies such as Microsoft and Google Cloud, led by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The domestic AI ecosystem is still in its infancy. Compared to advanced AI countries such as the United States (18) and China (2), there is not a single AI unicorn company worth more than $1 billion.
On the other hand, the growth of overseas AI companies is steep. OpenAI secured approximately $6.6 billion (approximately 8.8 trillion won) in investment and approximately $4 billion (approximately 5.3 trillion won) in credit loans in its recent investment round. The liquidity available for investment in new businesses alone amounts to $10 billion (approximately 13.6 trillion won).
An AI company official said, “One of the most difficult aspects for foreign AI companies in providing domestic services is infrastructure issues such as data centers and power, but they have found the best partner (telecommunications company).” He added, “Domestic companies have a system to promote the AI field. “I can’t help but feel more disappointed in a situation where national support is lacking,” he said.
Reporter Kim Myung-hee [email protected]
