Samsung SDS Becomes Anthropic’s First Select-Tier Partner in Korea

Samsung SDS has become the first Korean company to receive Select-tier status in Anthropic’s Claude Partner Network, deepening a partnership aimed at expanding enterprise use of generative artificial intelligence in Korea.

The designation recognizes partners that have certified technical expertise and experience deploying Claude-based systems in customers’ production environments. For Samsung SDS, it strengthens a business model that spans consulting, model access, implementation, operations and technical support rather than focusing on a single stage of AI adoption.

The move follows a strategic partnership that Samsung SDS and the US artificial intelligence company signed in July at an AI summit in San Francisco. The companies agreed to pursue enterprise AI opportunities in Korea, and the new partner status gives Samsung SDS a clearer role in bringing Anthropic’s models into corporate workflows.

Samsung SDS already holds certification as an Anthropic Authorized Reseller for Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Web Services’ platform for building generative AI applications. The company said it can use that relationship to provide customers with access to Claude while supporting deployment and ongoing operations through its own digital transformation capabilities.

The Korean technology services provider plans to target organizations in the public sector, finance, manufacturing and logistics. It also intends to expand Claude-based services and AI agents, conduct joint marketing and proof-of-concept projects with Anthropic, and train applied AI engineers who can assist customers from initial planning through implementation and maintenance.

Internal deployment is a central part of the strategy. Samsung SDS said Claude Enterprise is currently available to about 70,000 employees across 20 Samsung affiliates under its “Client Zero” approach, in which new technologies are tested inside the group before being offered more widely. The company expects experience from those deployments to help it identify practical enterprise use cases and refine the support it provides to outside customers.

Samsung SDS CEO Lee June-hee said combining Anthropic’s AI technology with Samsung SDS’s industry-focused digital transformation expertise would accelerate adoption and help companies create tangible business value.

The partnership illustrates intensifying competition among Korean information technology service providers to become the preferred implementation partners for global AI model developers. For Samsung SDS, the Select-tier designation adds a recognized credential as it seeks to turn growing corporate interest in generative AI into consulting, integration and managed-service revenue.