Sam Altman, the founder and CEO of U.S. artificial intelligence(AI) company OpenAI, is set to visit South Korea this week.

According to industry sources, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, will hold the closed-door "Builder Lab" workshop in Seoul on Tuesday with representatives of South Korean firms including AI startups.

The event comes amid escalating global AI competition following Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's recent launch of its models.

After the workshop, Altman is also expected to appear at Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a's meeting with local reporters, where he will likely announce the two companies' collaboration.

Domestic tech giant Kakao, which introduced its new AI brand, Kanana, last year and plans to launch the service later this year, is speculated to integrate OpenAI's model into its AI platform.

This will be Altman's third visit to South Korea, with his most recent trip in January 2024, when he toured Samsung Electronics' production facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.