Sam Altman meets about 50 Samsung executives in South Korea

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met about 50 senior Samsung executives in South Korea on Saturday, October 30, Bloomberg reported. Samsung confirmed the meeting, which took place at its Resources Development Center in Yongin, south of Seoul.

The attendees included chiefs from Samsung’s electronics, financial and biotechnology businesses. According to Samsung, the discussion focused on strengthening the relationship between the two companies, in particular a letter of intent signed in October to cooperate on global AI infrastructure. That letter covers the supply of memory semiconductors for OpenAI’s Stargate project.

Samsung described the conversation in a statement: “The Samsung executives and CEO Sam Altman discussed the direction of AI technology development and its potential applications, as well as new markets and business opportunities that will emerge from it.” SamMobile adds that the talks also covered how AI could reshape industries and corporate decision-making over the next decade.

No new memory chip supply deals were announced after the meeting. SamMobile says it is hard to imagine memory supply was not part of the conversation, but that is the outlet’s assessment rather than something Samsung stated. SamMobile also reports that local media suggest Altman met executives at SK Hynix, another major memory supplier. Samsung has not confirmed that.

The visit seems to have been rescheduled. SamMobile reports that Altman was expected in South Korea a few months earlier, but that trip was reportedly canceled for personal reasons.

Why it matters

Memory supply is tight, and SamMobile describes Samsung as a company everyone is chasing for chips. Altman’s last visit to South Korea came, in SamMobile’s telling, when memory prices had only just started to climb sharply. OpenAI’s Stargate project is the specific link between the two companies: the October letter of intent names Samsung as a supplier of memory semiconductors for it.

The trip also follows comments Altman made on the Chick Pink podcast this week about how scarce memory should be used. He argued that DRAM inside personal computers is often underused, calling the situation “quite terrible”, and said data centers could use memory more intensively by sharing computing resources across AI workloads. Tom’s Hardware reports that the argument drew widespread criticism, partly because OpenAI’s own services such as ChatGPT depend heavily on centralized computing infrastructure.

What we don’t know yet

Samsung’s statement does not say whether any supply volumes, prices or timelines were discussed. Whether Altman held separate talks with SK Hynix rests on unconfirmed local media reports.