OpenAI's Sam Altman Holds Consecutive Meetings with Chey Tae-won and Lee Jae-yong... Collaboration in Focus

Visited Seorin Building and Seocho Office on October 1
Met with Chey Taewon and Lee Jaeyong... First Meeting in About a Month
Attention on Possible Collaboration Projects with Samsung and SK
Potential for 'Stargate' Partnership... Data Center Development in Focus

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the leading American company behind the development of ChatGPT, held consecutive meetings on October 1 with Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, drawing attention to whether he is considering collaboration with the domestic semiconductor industry.

In particular, there are signs that Korean companies may collaborate with OpenAI on its massive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure initiative, the Stargate Project, by supplying semiconductors and participating in the construction of AI data centers.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is visiting Seoul through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center (SGBAC) in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on the 1st. Photo by Yonhap News

Altman, who entered the country via the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, immediately headed to the SK Seorin Building in Jongno-gu for a luncheon with Chairman Chey. When asked by reporters at the SK Seorin Building about the agenda for the meeting, Altman replied, "There are many topics today," before proceeding to the luncheon venue.

It is reported that Kwak Nojeong, President of SK Hynix, and Yoo Youngsang, President of SK Telecom, also attended the luncheon. Kim Kyunghoon, CEO of OpenAI Korea, was also present on behalf of OpenAI. SK and OpenAI are said to have focused their discussions on cooperation regarding AI semiconductors and generative AI services.

After the luncheon, Altman moved to Samsung Electronics' Seocho office building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to meet with Chairman Lee Jae-yong. This was the first meeting between Chairman Lee, Chairman Chey, and Altman since the business roundtable at the Korea-U.S. summit at the end of August, about a month ago.

Industry insiders expect that this series of meetings could lead to ways for SK Group and Samsung Electronics to participate in the Stargate Project. Stargate is a four-year, 500 billion dollar (about 700 trillion won) data infrastructure project announced in January by OpenAI, U.S. software and cloud company Oracle, and Japanese investment firm SoftBank.

This is an ultra-large-scale AI infrastructure project aimed at securing computing infrastructure on the scale of hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs). It is known as a strategic investment to prepare the foundation for next-generation model training and agent-type AI development.

Recently, SK Group, together with Amazon Web Services (AWS), began construction of the "SK AI Data Center Ulsan," consolidating the group's AI data center capabilities into a total solution package strategy that is yielding results. SK Hynix also firmly maintains its position as the global leader in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component of AI infrastructure.

Samsung Electronics, as a comprehensive semiconductor company with capabilities in memory semiconductors, system semiconductors, and foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing), is also seen as having the capacity to contribute to the smooth progress of the Stargate Project and the expansion of global AI infrastructure. Among its affiliates, IT services, construction, and heavy industry subsidiaries possess expertise in data center system development and construction.

Recently, OpenAI has been accelerating efforts to secure the computing power and GPUs needed for product services and development using ChatGPT. To this end, the company recently announced a strategic partnership with Nvidia, planning to deploy Nvidia-based systems in data centers with a capacity of 10 GW.

In the afternoon, Altman is scheduled to pay a courtesy visit to President Lee Jaemyung at the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul. Chairman Lee and Chairman Chey will also attend the meeting. President Lee is expected to seek advice on Korea's AI transformation (AX) strategy and request active cooperation with domestic companies and investment in Korea. The Presidential Office stated, "On the occasion of this meeting, the government and OpenAI intend to work together for Korea's AI transformation and the development of the AI ecosystem."