OpenAI has formalized agreements with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two prominent global memory chip manufacturers, to bolster its Stargate AI infrastructure project and develop data centers in South Korea.
The agreements, documented in letters of intent, followed a meeting in Seoul that included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, South Korea's president Lee Jae-myung, Samsung Electronics' executive chairman Jay Y. Lee, and SK chairman Chey Tae-won.
Under the terms of the deal, Samsung and SK Hynix plan to scale their manufacturing capabilities to produce up to 900,000 high-bandwidth memory (HBM) DRAM chips per month. These chips are intended for use in the Stargate project and associated AI data centers. SK Group indicated in a separate statement that this production volume would exceed double the current industry capacity for HBM chips. Stargate, a collaborative infrastructure project involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, aims to invest $500 billion into constructing AI-specific data centers primarily located in the United States.
These recent agreements align with a broader period of intensified investment in AI compute capacity. OpenAI has been central to much of this activity, including Nvidia's reported plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, which would grant access to over 10 gigawatts of compute capacity via Nvidia's AI training systems. Additionally, OpenAI announced plans to construct five new Stargate data centers with SoftBank and Oracle, aiming to increase its total compute capacity to 7 gigawatts. Earlier, Oracle agreed to provide OpenAI with $300 billion in compute capacity over a five-year period.
In South Korea, OpenAI is also collaborating with the Ministry of Science and ICT to identify opportunities for establishing AI data centers beyond Seoul. A distinct agreement has been reached with SK Telecom for the construction of an AI data center, and further agreements with Samsung subsidiaries are in place to explore additional data center development avenues within the country. As part of these strategic partnerships, Samsung and SK Group will integrate ChatGPT Enterprise and OpenAI APIs into their operational frameworks.
