KT Corporation, South Korea"s second-largest wireless carrier and a leader in telecommunications and ICT, has announced a five-year, multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft. This collaboration focuses on joint investments in AI, cloud computing, and IT, with KT leading the charge in AI and cloud while Microsoft contributes to infrastructure and personnel development.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, emphasized the partnership"s significance:
"Our strategic partnership brings together KT"s industry expertise with the power of our entire tech stack, from Azure AI to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Together, we will help accelerate the AI transformation of Korean organizations across the private and public sectors and build new AI-powered experiences for millions of consumers."
The partnership will see KT and Microsoft develop a customized version of GPT-4o and explore tailoring Microsoft"s Phi family of small language models to Korean culture and industry data. These bespoke models will power KT"s internal operations and be offered to other Korean businesses developing AI applications for Korean consumers.
Leveraging Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio, KT will also create custom AI agents for both consumer and business applications. Furthermore, the two companies will collaborate on enhancing KT"s Responsible AI framework to ensure the safe deployment of AI services in Korea.
Another key initiative involves the joint development and launch of Secure Public Cloud services, KT"s sovereign cloud solution based on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, specifically designed for Korean-regulated industries.
To bolster this partnership, KT"s AX-specialized service company will deliver Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions to the Korean market, with plans for global expansion. Microsoft will support this venture by providing professional consulting resources over the next three years.
Further solidifying their commitment, Microsoft will provide Azure credits and technical expertise to assist KT in establishing a co-innovation center to accelerate AI transformation within the Korean market.
Finally, KT will migrate its existing internal IT workloads, including mission-critical applications, to Microsoft Azure, utilizing services like Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service. KT will also equip all employees and developers with Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot.
Source: Microsoft