Kakao Says It Will Reach 6 Trillion Won in Revenue by 2030 After Spin-Off

[Financial News] Kakao has set a target of more than 6 trillion won in revenue by 2030 for Kakao AI, which will oversee its artificial intelligence (AI) business after the spin-off. In October, the company will also demonstrate some of its KakaoTalk-based AI agents. Apparently mindful of opposition from minority shareholders, Kakao emphasized that the spin-off separating its AI and investment businesses is a corporate governance restructuring aimed at enhancing corporate value, rather than strengthening founder Kim Beom-soo’s control.
Kim Do-yeong, head of Kakao’s Group Investment Strategy Office, said at an online meeting with minority shareholders on the 16th that Kakao AI’s revenue would rise from 2.7 trillion won in 2025 to more than 6 trillion won by 2030. Kakao’s target for revenue from AI services is approximately 1 trillion won. The company also aims to increase the daily active users (DAU) of its AI services to 20 million and expand the time users spend on KakaoTalk by 50%.
Kakao AI will combine AI services with Kakao’s existing platforms, including KakaoTalk, maps, advertising and commerce. Its plan is to develop agentic AI that understands users’ intentions based on their conversations and usage context, then connects those intentions to the actual execution of services. Kakao plans to allow users to launch and complete various services within KakaoTalk without going through separate apps.
Kakao is also preparing an integrated membership program that connects its mobility, content and commerce services around its KakaoTalk user base. Details of the benefits and the launch date will be disclosed once finalized. Jeon Hyeon-su, Kakao’s overall business leader, said, "Our goal is to allow users to use the benefits accumulated through multiple services in one place," adding, "We are currently designing and validating the business model ahead of the official launch."
Kakao identified virtual assets, live entertainment and global fandom platforms, as well as robotaxis, robot trucks and physical AI, as growth areas. It also emphasized that the spin-off into Kakao AI and Kakao X would enhance corporate value. Shin Jong-hwan, Kakao’s chief financial officer (CFO), said, "Because a spin-off is structured so that all shareholders receive shares in the two companies at the same ratio, the largest shareholder’s ownership percentage remains unchanged from before the split."
Kakao X has set a target of reaching 10 trillion won in revenue by 2030 by expanding its tech-finance, content and mobility businesses. To ease concerns about personal information protection, Kakao plans to provide AI functions in an on-device format that operates on smartphones whenever possible. It also plans to expand its services by combining its own large language model (LLM) with specialized external agents.
The Kakao consortium was allocated 256 NVIDIA B200 graphics processing units (GPUs) under the government’s “AI for Everyone” project.
Kim Do-yeong, the nominee to head Kakao X and head of Kakao’s Group Investment Strategy Office, explained, "The government allocated half of the GPUs to our consortium and distributed the remaining half among all the other consortiums combined." Earlier, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it would provide a total of 512 NVIDIA B200 GPUs to three consortiums, allocating 256 to the first-ranked consortium and 128 each to the second- and third-ranked operators. In other words, Kim’s remarks are interpreted as suggesting that the Kakao consortium ranked first in the evaluation.

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