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Altman Holds Talks With South Korea’s Technology Giants
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met senior executives from Samsung and SK during a two-day visit to South Korea, as the American artificial intelligence company deepens its ties with the country’s leading semiconductor and technology groups.
Altman began the Oct. 30-31 trip with a lunch attended by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and executives from SK Hynix and SK Telecom. The companies did not disclose what was discussed. Industry observers said the talks may have included supplies of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and potential data center cooperation connected to Stargate, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure initiative.
The meeting came three months after Altman and Chey met at a government-led AI summit in San Francisco. SK and OpenAI established a strategic partnership last year.
Altman traveled with several OpenAI executives, including hardware Vice President Richard Ho, Chief People Officer Arvind KC, Asia-Pacific and Japan Managing Director Kiran Mani, and regional sales Vice President Andreas Hartl. The trip was Altman’s first visit to Seoul since October of last year. An earlier plan to visit Samsung, Naver and Kakao in June had been postponed.
Samsung Pushes Companywide AI Adoption
On Oct. 31, Altman met about 50 presidents of Samsung affiliates at the company’s training center in Yongin, south of Seoul. The executives represented Samsung businesses spanning electronics, finance and biotechnology. Their discussion focused on how AI could reshape markets, corporate decision-making and organizational management over the next decade.
Altman said companies would not secure a lasting competitive advantage simply by using AI. Instead, he said, the advantage would depend on whether they use the technology to move faster, build better products and stay ahead of competitors. He also said he expected continued cooperation with Samsung and saw an opportunity for the companies to deliver high-quality AI at global scale.
Samsung executives also received what OpenAI called a “Codex micro keyboard,” a device designed to make the company’s Codex coding agent easier to use. Altman said the concept reflects a future in which people may rely more on spoken instructions and AI, reducing the need for a full keyboard.
The meeting was part of Samsung’s broader effort to integrate AI throughout research and development, manufacturing, marketing and administrative work. Before meeting Altman, the executives received hands-on training in using generative AI to organize management materials into personal knowledge repositories for decision-making.
Samsung began its companywide AI transformation program in June and has introduced ChatGPT at the group level. About 2,300 executives have been included in phased training, which Samsung plans to extend to all employees by February 2027. Affiliates are also establishing dedicated AI teams and expanding their use of outside generative AI services.
US-Korea AI and Semiconductor Partnerships Expand
OpenAI Korea described the Samsung meeting as an extension of cooperation that has grown beyond infrastructure to include AI adoption and corporate strategy across Samsung affiliates.
Samsung Electronics signed a letter of intent with OpenAI last October to cooperate on global AI infrastructure and pursue memory-chip supplies for Stargate. Samsung SDS is working with OpenAI on AI data centers and enterprise services, while Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries are cooperating on floating offshore data centers. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters in July.
Altman met only with Stargate partner companies during the visit, drawing attention to whether OpenAI’s planned South Korean AI data centers could move forward more quickly. One facility is planned with Samsung Electronics in Pohang, in southeastern South Korea. Another is planned with SK Group in the southwest, with a development district in Jangseong considered a leading candidate site.
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