OpenAI announces partnerships with South Korean chip giants over Stargate project

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — OpenAI and South Korean tech conglomerates Samsung and SK on Wednesday announced partnerships to provide chips and other solutions for Stargate, a $500 billion project aimed at building infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence.

The announcements came after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Korean corporate leaders in Seoul. Lee hailed the partnerships as a major opportunity for South Korea's semiconductor industry to solidify its role in AI and create more jobs.

The partnerships commit Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — the world’s two largest makers of memory chips — to accelerate their production of advanced chips to meet OpenAI’s increasing memory demands for the Stargate initiative, according to the companies’ statements.

The ChatGPT maker also reached separate agreements with SK Telecom, South Korea’s top wireless carrier, to explore building an AI data center in the country, dubbed “Stargate Korea,” and with other Samsung affiliates to collaborate on data center technologies and potentially expand local capacity.

Samsung said the agreements between OpenAI, Samsung C&T, and Samsung Heavy Industries include a joint commitment to develop floating data centers, which potentially offer advantages over land-based centers by easing land scarcity, reducing cooling costs and cutting carbon emissions.

“Korea has all the ingredients to be a global leader in AI — incredible tech talent, world-class infrastructure, strong government support, and a thriving AI ecosystem,” Altman said in a statement.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong said the world is at a “pivotal moment with the advent of AI, and the industry must collaborate to effectively chart the future.”

Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, aims for a significant expansion of computing infrastructure to support the development and delivery of AI products. The companies have committed to eventually invest up to $500 billion to build large-scale data centers and secure energy generation needed to further AI development.

OpenAI said last week that its flagship AI data center in Texas will be joined by five others around the United States, including two more data center complexes in Texas, one in New Mexico, one in Ohio and another in a Midwest location it hasn’t yet disclosed.