Kakao Splits Into Kakao AI and Kakao X to Sharpen Its AI Focus
The AMW Read
A major South Korean tech company reorganizes into a dedicated AI-platform entity with named leadership, capital allocation, and explicit 2030 revenue targets, meaningfully updating a known player's structure without resolving an open industry debate.
Kakao Splits Into Kakao AI and Kakao X to Sharpen Its AI Focus
Kakao's board approved a corporate spin-off on August 21 that divides the company into two entities: Kakao AI and Kakao X. The split ratio is set at 0.36 (Kakao AI) to 0.64 (Kakao X) based on net asset book value, with existing shareholders receiving stock in both new companies proportionally. Kakao AI will run the KakaoTalk-and-AI platform business, with a stated goal of turning the messaging app into a personalized AI interface and broadening everyday AI services. Kakao X, the surviving entity, retains the fintech, content, and mobility verticals (including KakaoBank, KakaoPay, and KakaoMobility) and has earmarked 2.3 trillion won (~$1.7B) to fund new growth businesses. Shina Jung, Kakao's current CEO, will lead Kakao AI; Kim Do-young, CEO of Kakao Investment, will lead Kakao X.
Kakao framed the split as a response to its single decision-making structure becoming too slow to run a platform-and-AI business alongside a portfolio of scaled verticals that draw different investor evaluation standards and capital preferences. The move caps roughly two years of Kakao trimming non-core affiliates and consolidating around growth priorities. Separating the AI platform into its own corporate structure, with dedicated leadership and disclosed revenue targets, signals that Kakao is treating consumer AI distribution through KakaoTalk as its central strategic bet rather than one initiative competing for resources inside a larger conglomerate.
For builders and investors, the split creates two distinct entities to track: Kakao AI, which will be judged as a consumer AI platform play riding KakaoTalk's existing distribution, and Kakao X, judged as a fintech-content-mobility portfolio. Kakao set 2030 revenue targets of over 6 trillion won (~$4.4B) for Kakao AI and over 10 trillion won (~$7.4B) for Kakao X's major businesses, giving outside investors a first concrete benchmark to underwrite each business independently — and giving competitors building AI assistants in Korea a clearer picture of how seriously Kakao is committing capital and leadership to its messaging-app AI strategy.
