Sam Altman, chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI, left Korea after a brief but intense visit. Altman's trip stirred excitement in the domestic venture and startup sectors due to the anticipation of being able to participate in OpenAI's ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem expansion project. In particular, as CEO Altman met with the heads of major domestic conglomerates such as Samsung, SK, and GS in a series of meetings, the domestic venture capital (VC) industry showed signs of actively seeking investment opportunities.
As Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank Group, joined the meeting between Altman and Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, expectations for widespread investment in the overall AI ecosystem grew even stronger. This is due to CEO Altman and Chairman Son carrying out the $500 billion (approximately 720 trillion won) AI project called 'Stargate' in the United States.
For this reason, it seems that domestic houses viewed this visit by CEO Altman as a golden opportunity to be part of large-scale overseas projects. Domestic houses did not unexpectedly anticipate a meeting with CEO Altman. This was because on 4th, CEO Altman and Kevin Weil, chief product officer (CPO) of OpenAI, held a private workshop titled 'Builder Lab' inviting domestic AI startups, which was hosted by Lee Jun-pyo, the representative of SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures).
It is reported that Lee and CEO Altman have a close personal relationship. When CEO Altman was the representative of the Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, he frequently interacted with Chairman Son. It was also Lee who facilitated CEO Altman's first visit to Korea in 2023, during which SBVA co-hosted the event 'Fireside Chat with OpenAI.'
However, despite the keen desire, CEO Altman left Korea on the same day he met with Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group. Altman's side explained, "CEO Altman returned home immediately after meeting with business figures, and I understand that there were no plans for separate meetings with domestic VCs." This indicates there were no intentions to involve domestic houses, which lack the financial capacity for a large-scale investment project amounting to 730 trillion won.
The position of domestic houses in the global market is narrow. The assets under management (AUM) of top-tier venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) amount to approximately 90 trillion won. Even when combined with funds from the private equity (PE) sector, domestic houses struggle to exceed 10 trillion won. Given their lack of a global network, it is also challenging to find an opportunity to break into overseas investment rounds.
A source from the VC industry noted, "As far as currently known, the Stargate project is likely to involve large-scale infrastructure investments, and typically, there may not be room for VCs to participate in infrastructure investments. However, if connections are made with CEO Altman, it could help domestic investees in their global expansion or participate in overseas investment rounds in a club deal format, which is why there was keen interest in CEO Altman's visit."