Photo: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (left) at the presidential office on October 1. Credit: Office of the President.
On October 23, the Vena Group pledged to invest up to KRW 20t (USD 14b) in South Korea for renewable energy and AI projects. Vena, a renewable energy developer owned by BlackRock, presented a letter of intent to the National Assembly 국회 laying out its plans to invest in the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence, as well as renewable energy projects including solar, wind, and batteries.
Vena’s investment follows a wave of global AI companies establishing Seoul branches. On September 10, OpenAI launched its Seoul office, its third location in Asia after Singapore and Tokyo. On October 24, Anthropic announced that it also plans to open a Seoul office in addition to its Asia locations in Japan and India. Nationally, South Korea ranks among the five heaviest users of Anthropic’s Claude AI model, both in absolute terms and per capita.
