OpenAI’s Altman meets Samsung executives as chip crunch deepens

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman met with Samsung Group executives in South Korea on October 31 to strengthen collaboration on memory chips and AI infrastructure as global shortages worsen. The discussions, held at Samsung's Yongin headquarters, involved around 50 executives from Samsung's diverse business units, including electronics, finance, and biotechnology. The focus was on how AI could transform industries, decision-making, and business opportunities over the next decade.

The meeting comes amid global memory chip shortages, driving up prices and intensifying competition among data center operators. The five leading AI infrastructure firms plan to invest over US$3 trillion in the coming years, with memory chips accounting for about a third of data center spending. Altman joins a growing list of prominent American tech leaders, such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang and AMD's Lisa Su, who have visited South Korea in recent years to bolster supply chain connections.

This visit follows a previous partnership between OpenAI and Samsung to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate infrastructure project and to collaborate on AI data centers, including floating offshore facilities. Samsung is also speeding up AI adoption across its various sectors, from research and manufacturing to marketing and corporate operations.