The technology and product heads of U.S. company Anthropic, developer of Claude, one of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems, will visit Naver’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on the 16th to meet with domestic developers. This move is seen as Anthropic, which is preparing for a listing on the U.S. stock market, significantly stepping up its presence in the Korean market. Not only Anthropic but also other companies such as OpenAI are putting substantial effort into Korea. The interpretation is that, as tech companies fiercely competing for leadership in the AI market, they view Korea—armed with world-class AI infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities—as an indispensable partner.

According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 4th, Caitlin Rishi, head of platform engineering at Anthropic, and Angela Jiang, head of product, will hold a “meetup” with domestic developers at Naver on the 16th. A “meetup” refers to a small-scale networking event where people with shared interests or technologies gather to freely exchange knowledge and build personal networks. Such events usually focus on exchanges between developers, but as this session will be led directly by the executives in charge of Anthropic’s core technologies and product development, observers expect weighty agenda items to be discussed. A representative from the domestic venture capital (VC) sector, which has frequently arranged meetings between foreign AI firms and the Korean IT industry, said, “Since Naver provides Anthropic’s ‘Claude Code’ as part of its in-house AI toolkit, dealing with information related to this will be a main objective,” but added, “There is also a possibility that various collaboration talks will take place, such as a technology partnership with Naver or Naver joining the security alliance led by Anthropic.”

Anthropic has recently accelerated efforts to penetrate the Korean market. Last month, it appointed Choi Ki-young, former Korea country head of Snowflake, as its first Korea representative and opened an office in Gangnam, Seoul. Korea is also a highly responsive market, with Claude usage per capita exceeding the company’s expectations by a factor of 3.5. Earlier this month, it was reported that the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), Samsung Electronics, and SK hynix joined “Glasswing,” a global cooperation program based on Mythos, a security-specialized AI that identifies vulnerabilities in software and blocks them in advance. SK Telecom also announced on the 4th that it is joining Glasswing, stating that it will verify safety under strict regulations and management guidelines, preemptively block security risks, and enhance the security of core infrastructure and services.

Analysts say Anthropic’s strong focus on the Korean market is closely linked to its imminent U.S. stock market listing. On the 1st (local time), Anthropic submitted a confidential draft registration statement for an initial public offering (IPO) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), thereby initiating the listing process ahead of its rival OpenAI. To successfully establish itself in the stock market, the company needs to secure loyal corporate customers and partners in key markets such as Korea, which serve as major hubs, in order to build a stable revenue base.

Anthropic is not alone in courting Korea. OpenAI last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the AI ecosystem with the Ministry of Science and ICT and partnered with Samsung Electronics and SK to build a large-scale AI data center. Jensen Huang, chief executive officer (CEO) of Nvidia, is also visiting Korea this week to meet with the management of major conglomerates.

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