Sam Altman Meets 50 Samsung Executives in South Korea to Secure Memory Chips

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman met top Samsung Group executives in South Korea on Oct 31 to deepen cooperation on memory chips and AI infrastructure as global shortages intensify.

Samsung hosted Altman in Yongin, south of Seoul, for discussions with roughly 50 leaders across its electronics, financial and biotechnology affiliates.

The talks focused on how artificial intelligence will reshape industries, business opportunities and corporate decisions over the next decade, while data centre operators prepare to spend more than US$3 trillion on AI infrastructure in the coming years.

The Race for Three Trillion Dollars in Hardware

Data centre builders are fighting for limited factory allocations. The five largest companies driving the artificial intelligence infrastructure push plan to spend more than US$3 trillion in the coming years.

That volume of capital expenditure concentrates procurement power directly in East Asia. South Korea controls the bulk of the world’s high-bandwidth and advanced memory manufacturing capacity, turning local suppliers into the primary gatekeepers for global software deployment.

For hardware brands and consumer device manufacturers across the Asia-Pacific region, this supply crunch poses an immediate cost problem. Server buyers with massive cash reserves are hoovering up production lines, leaving personal computer makers and smartphone builders competing for the remaining silicon at elevated prices.

Stargate Project and Offshore Data Centres

The Yongin talks build directly on an existing agreement between the two firms. Samsung previously agreed to supply memory chips for OpenAI’s Stargate computing project and to collaborate on building specialised data centres, including floating offshore facilities designed to handle massive power and cooling loads.

Securing Samsung’s manufacturing muscle gives OpenAI an alternative channel alongside its existing supplier relationships. For Samsung, locking in high-volume, long-term purchase agreements with the sector’s most prominent model developer guarantees steady off-take for high-margin silicon lines.

Altman follows a well-trodden executive path into Seoul. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices head Lisa Su have each traveled to South Korea twice since 2025 to protect their component pipelines as fabrication plants struggle to keep pace with order books.

Internal Automation and Deployment Targets

Beyond external component sales, Samsung is speeding up its own internal adoption of artificial intelligence. The group is rolling out tools across chip design, laboratory research, factory floor manufacturing, marketing divisions and corporate management.

Chip production remains tightly bottlenecked by cleanroom capacity and specialized lithography equipment. With major hyperscalers committing US$3 trillion toward compute facilities, the next data point to watch is Samsung’s upcoming quarterly capital expenditure guidance, which will show how much new manufacturing capacity the company plans to build out in Yongin to service Stargate and commercial buyers.