[Exclusive] Lee Jae-yong to Meet Sam Altman at Samsung Seocho Building

After Attending Morning Developer Workshop, Heading to Seocho
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Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong will meet Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, who is visiting Korea, at the Samsung Seocho Office.

According to industry sources on the 4th, after attending the private developer workshop 'Builder Lab' held at the Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul in the morning, CEO Altman is scheduled to meet Chairman Lee at Samsung Electronics' office located in Seocho-gu.

This is expected to be Chairman Lee's first schedule since he was acquitted in the second trial of the allegations related to the 'unfair merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries' and 'accounting fraud at Samsung Biologics.' Chairman Lee arrived at the Samsung Seocho Office at 7 a.m. that day. Since the meeting will be a direct one with the chairman, it is anticipated that executives such as Vice Chairmen Han Jong-hee and Jeon Young-hyun may also attend.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Photo by Kang Jin-hyung/ Yonhap News

During the meeting, the two are expected to explore future cooperation in the semiconductor and AI (artificial intelligence) fields. OpenAI has announced plans to develop AI-dedicated devices and chips in response to the shock caused by 'DeepSeek.' In an interview with Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun the previous day, Altman said about AI-dedicated devices, "We will do it through cooperation," adding, "AI fundamentally changes the way we interact with computers, so new terminals are necessary. Voice control will be key."

It is also anticipated that there may be a request for investment attraction to Samsung Electronics during the meeting. Samsung Electronics is currently known to be coordinating plans to establish an 'open partnership' with OpenAI. Samsung Electronics produces high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI data centers, enterprise solid-state drives (eSSD), and GDDR7 memory for AI PCs.

When CEO Altman visited Samsung Electronics' Pyeongtaek plant in January last year, he met with various division heads, including Kyung Kye-hyun, then head (president) of the Device Solutions (DS) division. He later visited the Samsung Seocho Office and had dinner with the management team.