Asian Tech Press (Oct 18) -- South Korean tech giant Naver Corp (035420.KS) and its Japanese SoftBank Group Corp. (9984.T) are exploring joint business on AI, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday.

The report, citing several industry sources with knowledge of the matter, said that the two companies "have been discussing about joint business on AI" on Friday.

To boost its AI platform, Naver may spin off its core of AI business, Clova Interface Connect (CIC), and raise funds from SoftBank or set up a joint venture.

The sources also said Naver senior officials have met with SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son about the idea, and that SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 would invest billions of dollars in the project, larger than the 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) the fund had invested in Coupang.

Clova Interface Connect, a team responsible for research, planning, development and operation of artificial intelligence at Naver. In May, it unveiled its "supersized" artificial intelligence (AI) platform, HyperCLOVA.

Naver announced a partnership with SoftBank on AI in 2019. To this end, Line, Naver's instant messaging service, and Z Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank, formerly known as Yahoo Japan, formally completed their merger in the first half of 2020.