Anthropic Opens Seoul Office, Signs MOU with Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT
On June 17, 2026, Anthropic announced the opening of its Seoul office, led by KiYoung Choi -- a veteran with three decades of experience leading technology businesses in Korea. Alongside the office launch, the company revealed a wave of major Korean enterprise partnerships and a government-level Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT focused on AI safety.
Enterprise Adoption: Who's Using Claude in Korea
This isn't Anthropic's first foray into Korea -- companies like WRTN and Law&Company have been using Claude for years. But the new announcements reveal adoption at a different scale entirely.
NAVER: Claude Code Across All Engineers
The most notable win is NAVER, South Korea's dominant search engine and cloud platform. NAVER has deployed Claude Code across its entire engineering organization -- thousands of engineers now use Claude Code alongside their existing tools. This is one of the largest single-organization Claude Code deployments publicly disclosed anywhere in the world.
NAVER's decision is particularly significant because they're not a small startup dipping a toe in AI coding. They're a sophisticated tech platform competing globally. If NAVER trusts Claude Code enough to roll it out org-wide, that carries weight for other enterprises evaluating AI coding tools.
Nexon: Game Development at Scale
Nexon, the global online gaming company behind franchises played by millions, has engineering teams using Claude Code to write, review, and ship code for live-service games. Game development involves massive codebases, frequent updates, and complex real-time systems -- a demanding test case for AI coding assistants.
LG CNS and LG Group
LG CNS, the IT services arm of LG Group, is rolling out Claude to thousands of employees for software development and client technology delivery. Anthropic explicitly states it will "also deploy Claude across LG Group," suggesting the rollout extends well beyond the IT services arm to the broader LG conglomerate spanning electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications.
Samsung SDS
Samsung SDS, the IT arm of Samsung Group, is deploying Claude to employees across Samsung Electronics. Teams are using Claude Cowork and Claude Code for knowledge work, agentic workflows, and software development. Notably, Samsung is simultaneously deploying OpenAI's ChatGPT and Codex -- making them a rare dual-platform enterprise using both ecosystems.
Hanwha Solutions
Hanwha Solutions is bringing Claude to global employees through AWS Bedrock, leveraging Bedrock's in-region data residency and security controls -- important for meeting regulatory requirements in the energy and chemicals sector.
Government Partnership
Anthropic signed an MOU with Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT covering:
• Collaboration on AI safety and cybersecurity
• Evaluating model safety in the Korean language with the Korea AI Safety Institute
• Exchanging information on AI-enabled cyber threats
This government-level engagement signals that Anthropic is treating Korea as more than just a market -- it's investing in regulatory and safety infrastructure alongside commercial relationships.
Startup and Research Ecosystem
Anthropic is also building grassroots presence in Korea:
• Channel Corp uses Claude to power Channel Talk, a customer AI platform serving 230,000+ companies across Korea, Japan, and the US.
• Claude for Startups is now live in Korea with support programs and events.
• Researcher access for up to 60 scientists at the National AI Research Lab (KAIST, Korea University, Yonsei University, POSTECH).
• Good Neighbors Korea NGO deploying Claude to reduce administrative workload for social workers.
• Anthropic co-hosted a Claude Build Day with BASS Ventures and a Push to Prod hackathon with Replit and Korean investors.
What This Means
Korea is shaping up as the central battleground for enterprise AI in Asia. Within the same week, OpenAI landed the Samsung mega-deployment while Anthropic countered with the NAVER org-wide rollout, a Seoul office, and a government MOU. Enterprise buyers benefit from this competition -- both vendors are investing heavily in the region.
For teams evaluating AI coding tools: NAVER's choice of Claude Code across all engineers is a strong reference. It signals that Claude Code is production-ready for large, sophisticated engineering organizations.
Sources
• Anthropic: Seoul office and partnerships announcement