OpenAI Deepens Samsung Partnership for Next-Generation Chip Development

OpenAI is deepening its cooperation with Samsung Electronics on the development of next-generation chips, an executive said, strengthening the strategic alliance between the artificial intelligence leader and the South Korean technology giant.

What Happened

At a press conference in Seoul, Harrison Kim, General Manager of OpenAI Korea, highlighted the progress made with Samsung. "One of the areas where we have made the most progress and gained the most recognition with Samsung Electronics is our joint production and research on the next-generation chips we are developing," Kim stated, according to Reuters.

Following the event, OpenAI Korea clarified that Kim's comments were made in the context of the companies' existing relationship. The company noted that it had "nothing new to announce on this front," framing the development as an expansion of current collaboration rather than a new initiative.

Context of the Partnership

The collaboration extends beyond custom logic chips. Samsung is already a key partner and user of OpenAI's technology.

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• Samsung Electronics is described as "one of the largest-scale deployments of ChatGPT globally," with employees using the AI for R&D, marketing, and sales.
• Last year, Samsung and SK Hynix signed letters of intent to supply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for OpenAI’s ambitious Stargate data center project.
• Kim emphasized that the demand for advanced memory chips will continue to grow, making cooperation with South Korean semiconductor suppliers a priority.

OpenAI's Broader Hardware Ambitions

This move is part of OpenAI's broader strategy to develop its own custom hardware to power its AI models, reducing its reliance on third-party vendors. In June, OpenAI announced its first custom AI chip, designed with Broadcom for AI inference tasks and slated for manufacturing by Taiwan's TSMC.

The growing collaboration with Samsung, a leader in both memory chips and advanced foundry services, positions OpenAI to secure critical components for its increasingly complex and power-intensive AI systems. Meanwhile, OpenAI reported that the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users in South Korea surged approximately 28-fold as of August from a year earlier.