As the global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure competition trends are becoming more popular, according to Reuters' reports, two major Korean memory manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, announced that after accompanying Pre...
As the global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure competition trends are becoming more popular, according to Reuters' reports, two major Korean memory manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, announced that after accompanying President Lee Jae Myung and OpenAI executive director Sam Altman on the 1st, they have signed a book of intent (LOI) to be a ChatGPT operator OpenAI The data center supplies key memory chips. This symbolizes the formal participation of Korean chip manufacturers in OpenAI's largest Stargate supply chain to meet its growing demand.
"Star Gate" is a weight-weight AI-based design announced by US President Trump in January 2025. With an investment of up to US$50 billion, the plan will be paid to OpenAI and its partners (including Silver and Oracle, etc.), an important task, which is to ensure that the United States continues to maintain its leading position in the global AI field. Therefore, expanding chip supply is one of the key goals of "Star Gate".
Predict OpenAI's memory chips required for "Star Gate" are expected to reach a 900,000 wafer per month, and OpenAI expressed its desire to buy most of its needs mainly from Samsung and SK Hynix. Although the supply schedule has not yet been finalized, the Korean General Office has emphasized that this cooperation has enabled Korean chip manufacturers to gain an early foothold in the world's largest AI-based facility project, providing an important growth opportunity for Korean chip industry.
Samsung and SK Hynix play a decisive role in the global memory market. The two companies jointly grasp approximately 70% of the global DRAM market and account for nearly 80% of the high-frequency wide memory (HBM) market. Especially in the context of explosive growth in AI-accelerated computing demand, HBM has become an indispensable core component for AI servers and data centers. Korean companies' absolute leading position in the HBM field makes them an ideal partner for OpenAI to solve the needs of large computing power.
To ensure the chip supply of "Star Gate", OpenAI's partner eco-chain has been further expanded. Last week, GPU manufacturer NVIDIA (NVIDIA) announced that it would invest up to US$10 billion in OpenAI and supply data center chips to it. This represents the world's top AI companies are actively building diverse and large chip supply chains to support their growth demand in the next few years.
OpenAI Korean market demand has also grown strong, which has led to OpenAI establishing its first overseas office in Seoul in 2025. According to OpenAI data, South Korea is the country that has the highest paid ChatGPT subscribers since the United States, showing the country's high degree of absoluteness in adopting AI services. Therefore, through this strategic alliance with Korean memory factories, OpenAI not only stabilizes the memory resources required by the AI computing core, but also further deepens its layout and cooperation relationship in Asia's key markets.
