Altman does Asia, DeepSeek divides opinion

STORY: From Sam Altman’s travels, to some very different takes on DeepSeek, this is AI Weekly.

++++

OpenAI chief Sam Altman hit the road for a whirlwind tour of Asia.

In Tokyo, a deal was announced with Japanese investment giant SoftBank to offer AI services to corporate customers.

Then it was on to South Korea for another deal.

Altman said OpenAI would provide its tech to KakaoTalk, the country’s dominant messaging app.

“We are particularly interested in AI and messaging. I think there is really a rich thing to explore there that can improve the experience a lot for users.”

Altman also said South Korean firms would play a big role in ‘Stargate’, the new U.S. project meant to create massive AI data centers.

On a stop in India, Altman discussed the country’s plan of creating a low-cost AI ecosystem with the IT minister.

Sources say Altman also plans to visit the United Arab Emirates to discuss raising funds with an Abu Dhabi investment group.

++++

Chinese firms are rushing to embrace DeepSeek – the AI app that claims to match U.S. rivals at a fraction of the cost.

Among the announcements, Huawei said it was working to make the model available on its cloud service.

But the new bot has had a cooler welcome in Europe.

Regulators in Italy have blocked the app over data privacy concerns, with watchdogs in France, Ireland and the Netherlands also taking a very close look.

++++

Samsung continues to struggle.

The South Korean giant warned of slow sales for its AI chips amid U.S. export restrictions on China.

It’s also still lagging local rival SK Hynix in supplying high-end chips to U.S. AI champion Nvidia.

++++

And there were conflicting fortunes for Microsoft and Meta.

The Windows maker saw shares plunge after big bets on AI failed to drive equally big gains in revenue for its cloud computing business.

But shares soared at Meta after a jump in revenue eased fears over its huge spending on the technology.

One analyst said the Facebook firm might have more to show for its AI investment than any big rival.