Kakao is completely restructuring its governance through a corporate split into Kakao AI and Kakao X to align with the artificial intelligence era.

Kakao AI will launch as an AI core company connecting KakaoTalk with AI, advertising, and commerce, while Kakao X will be established as a future-value investment company encompassing key affiliates in techfin, content, and mobility.

Both companies have set targets to achieve over 6 trillion won in sales for Kakao AI and over 10 trillion won in sales for Kakao X by 2030.

They also unveiled a plan to purchase and retire 300 billion won in treasury shares using the proceeds from the sale of Dunamu.

Kakao held a board meeting on the 21st and resolved on the corporate split into Kakao AI (the new entity) and Kakao X (the surviving entity).

The split ratio is 0.36 for Kakao AI and 0.64 for Kakao X based on the book value of net assets, and existing shareholders will be allocated shares in both companies according to the split ratio.

The company plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on December 17, complete the split on January 1 of next year, and pursue the re-listing of Kakao AI and the change of listing for Kakao X on the 27th of the same month.

Chung Shin-a, current CEO of Kakao, has been nominated as the CEO of Kakao AI, and Kim Doyoung, CEO of Kakao Investment and head of the CA Council Group Investment Strategy Office, has been nominated as the CEO of Kakao X.

Kakao AI aims to be an AI core company that organically connects AI, advertising, and commerce centered around KakaoTalk.

The vision is to evolve KakaoTalk into an agentic AI interface that best understands the intentions and contexts of its approximately 50 million users.

If a user communicates what they want through a message, a personalized AI agent completes the desired outcome ranging from exploration to recommendation, purchase, and payment.

Operational subsidiaries such as DK Techin and KNWorks will be included under Kakao AI.

Kakao AI plans to secure over 20 million daily active AI users and increase platform dwell time by more than 50% by 2030.

The goal is to drive an average annual sales growth rate of around 20% by expanding new revenue models such as AI advertising, agentic commerce, and subscriptions, thereby achieving over 6 trillion won in sales by 2030.

AI sales are expected to grow to a double-digit proportion of total sales by 2028 and exceed 1 trillion won by 2030.

The surviving entity Kakao X will launch as a future-value investment company housing key techfin, content, and mobility affiliates such as Kakao Bank, Kakao Pay, Kakao Entertainment, and Kakao Mobility.

In particular, it will take charge of reawakening Kakao's intrinsic innovation DNA to discover and foster new growth axes like Kakao Bank, Kakao Pay, and Kakao Mobility.

It plans to discover new businesses and invest in innovative companies by utilizing approximately 2.3 trillion won secured through the securitization of held assets and about 4.1 trillion won in investment resources held by subsidiaries.

Current major areas under review include virtual assets, physical AI, and global fandoms.

Kakao X aims to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 13.3% in major business sales and establish a growth foundation with a scale of over 10 trillion won in sales by 2030.

Kakao AI will allocate 20% to 35% of its separately adjusted free cash flow (FCF), while Kakao X will use 30% each of its subsidiary dividends and investment gains as shareholder return resources.

They also unveiled a plan to purchase and retire 300 billion won in treasury shares using the proceeds from the sale of Dunamu.

According to Kakao, the potential value of the Kakao Group based on the average sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) consensus of domestic and foreign securities firms in August of this year is 34.2 trillion won, which is about 17.4 trillion won higher than the average market capitalization of 16.8 trillion won over the past three months.

Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a said, "This split is a decision to transition Kakao into a structure of speed and responsibility suited for the AI era," adding, "We will strive to ensure that Kakao AI and Kakao X establish strategies and capital allocation principles tailored to their respective business characteristics, execute more rapidly, and transparently communicate their performance with the market."

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su stated, "As the AI era demands a different level of agility, we will redesign our growth structure with two engines, Kakao AI and Kakao X, and do our utmost to ensure that the results return to shareholders, users, and all crew members."