Samsung and SK Hynix plan to supply advanced memory chips for OpenAI’s data centres, as it looks to expand its Stargate infrastructure project in the United States.
OpenAI also agreed to explore developing and building artificial intelligence data centres in South Korea.
“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,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“Partnering on Stargate represents a landmark moment for SK and the official starting point for comprehensive technological innovation, with SK bringing powerful synergies across the full AI stack — memory semiconductors, data centres, energy, and networks,” said SK Hynix chair Chey Tae-won.
“As primary partners, SK and OpenAI will jointly drive global AI infrastructure innovation through expanding collaboration spanning infrastructure, model development, applications, and breakthrough research on next-generation AI computing solutions.”
Under the deal, Samsung and SK Hynix will scale up their production of memory chips to power OpenAI’s AI models. The companies will aim to start production of 900,000 wafers each month.
The partnership will support OpenAI’s Stargate project. Stargate is a joint venture alongside SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, and includes investing up to US$500 billion into expanding AI infrastructure in the United States by 2029.
To explore developing data centres in the country, OpenAI has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s science ministry.
These potential data centres will be located outside Seoul to support regional economic growth, and could include two data centres with an initial capacity of 20 megawatts.
OpenAI will partner with SK Telecom to explore building these data centres, and with Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Samsung SDS to assess further expanding the country’s data centre capacity.
According to OpenAI, Samsung and SK Hynix will also seek to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise, its business-focused chatbot, into their operations.
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