Samsung Forms Comprehensive Partnership with OpenAI, Supports 'Stargate Project' and More

Four Samsung Affiliates Sign LOI: Electronics, SDS, C&T, and Heavy Industries
Joint Leadership in Next-Generation AI Data Center Innovation
Samsung Electronics Responds to Rising DRAM Demand from OpenAI
Samsung SDS to Collaborate on Data Center Development and Enterprise AI
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries to Co-Develop Floating Data Centers
"Aiming to Play a Key Role in Korea's Rise as a Top Three AI Powerhouse"

On October 1, Samsung Electronics announced that it has entered into a "comprehensive partnership" with OpenAI, a leading U.S. big tech company, to collaborate on building global artificial intelligence (AI) core infrastructure, including data centers.

Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, shakes hands with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at the "Mutual Cooperation Letter of Intent (LOI) Signing Ceremony for Building Global AI Core Infrastructure" held at Samsung Electronics Seocho Building on the 1st. As a strategic partner of OpenAI, Samsung plans to consolidate the core competencies of each company in semiconductors, data centers, cloud, and marine technology to establish a comprehensive cooperation system. Provided by Samsung Electronics

According to Samsung Electronics, the two companies held a Letter of Intent (LOI) signing ceremony at Samsung's Seocho office building that afternoon. The four Samsung affiliates that signed the LOI with OpenAI are Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, Samsung C&T, and Samsung Heavy Industries. The ceremony was attended by Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics; Jun Young-hyun, Vice Chairman and Head of DS Division at Samsung Electronics; Choi Sung-an, Vice Chairman of Samsung Heavy Industries; Oh Se-chul, President of Samsung C&T; and Lee Jun-hee, President of Samsung SDS. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who visited Korea that day, was also present.

Samsung Electronics stated, "With this cooperation with OpenAI as a starting point, we aim to play a pivotal role in enabling Korea to become one of the top three global AI powerhouses."

Under the newly signed partnership, Samsung Electronics will act as a strategic partner of OpenAI, consolidating the core competencies of the four affiliates in semiconductors, data centers, cloud, and marine technology to establish a comprehensive cooperation system.

To begin with, Samsung Electronics plans to support OpenAI's "Stargate Project" by ensuring a stable supply of high-performance, low-power memory. The Stargate Project is a massive AI infrastructure initiative. In January, OpenAI, along with U.S. software and cloud company Oracle and Japanese investment firm SoftBank, announced plans to invest 500 billion dollars (approximately 700 trillion won) over four years to build data centers. The goal is to secure computational infrastructure on the scale of hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs). This is also known as a strategic investment to prepare the foundation for next-generation model training and the development of agent-type AI.

To continue this project, OpenAI is expected to require 900,000 wafers of high-performance DRAM per month. In response, Samsung Electronics plans to provide strong support to ensure OpenAI does not face difficulties in securing memory solutions.

In addition, Samsung Electronics is expected to pursue various collaborative initiatives with OpenAI, leveraging its own strengths. Samsung Electronics possesses infrastructure not only for memory but also for system semiconductors and foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) businesses. This means the company has a diverse product portfolio necessary for the entire AI training and inference process. Furthermore, Samsung is prepared to offer differentiated solutions to OpenAI in advanced packaging and in the convergence of memory and system semiconductor technologies.

Samsung SDS, through its partnership with OpenAI to jointly develop AI data centers and provide enterprise AI services, will collaborate with OpenAI in data center design, construction, and operation, utilizing its advanced data center technologies. It can also offer consulting, implementation, and operation services to companies wishing to introduce OpenAI's AI models into their internal work systems. Additionally, by signing Korea's first "reseller partnership" to sell and support OpenAI's enterprise services, Samsung SDS will enable Korean companies to access OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise services in the future.

Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries will collaborate with OpenAI to advance and develop global AI data centers, with a particular focus on the joint development of "floating data centers." Floating data centers are advanced data centers installed at sea, offering advantages such as fewer space constraints, reduced cooling costs, and lower carbon emissions compared to land-based data centers. However, due to their high technical complexity, research and development for commercialization is currently underway in only a few countries.

Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries plan to leverage their proprietary technologies to develop floating data centers, floating power generation facilities, and control centers.