What mattersShow
- The Toronto-based AI firm is expanding its physical presence in Korea
- Primary sector: AI Infrastructure
- Open the company page to keep the follow-up signal in view.
Cohere plans to establish a subsidiary in South Korea later this year, a move driven by the country’s status as the fastest-growing market within the Asia Pacific region. The company reported that nearly half of its total Asia Pacific customer base growth over the past year originated from Korea, signaling deep local demand for advanced AI tools.
The expansion addresses both massive commercial opportunity and geopolitical concerns surrounding data control. While many nations pursue 'sovereign AI', the ability to own and control domestic infrastructure, Cohere differentiated its approach by emphasizing complete customer model control. According to the company’s vice president of Asia Pacific, Andrew Chang, deploying models on-premise gives customers physical assurance that external parties cannot shut down or monitor usage data.
Cohere's emphasis on on-premise, customer-controlled deployments signals a strategic pivot to meet national sovereignty requirements rather than solely competing on raw model capability.
This localized strategy is already taking concrete form through established local partnerships. Cohere has worked with firms like LG CNS since before its current presence in Korea, co-developing a Korean-language model and integrating the agentic AI platform with internal corporate tools. The company also plans to hire engineers locally to help customers build and deploy AI agents on site.
The commitment is substantial: Cohere projects another three-fold surge in customer count by the end of next year, expecting Korea to account for close to half of that increase. This focus suggests that Korean enterprises are not only adopting advanced AI platforms but are requiring a specialized deployment model that meets stringent local data residency and operational security standards.
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