Altman meets Samsung executives as chip crunch deepens

Sam Altman flew to South Korea to meet Samsung Group's top executives on Saturday, as the memory chips that AI data centres run on grow scarcer and more expensive. Samsung hosted the OpenAI chief executive for talks with about 50 executives from its electronics, financial and biotechnology affiliates in Yongin, south of Seoul, the company said in a statement.

The agenda was how AI could reshape industries, corporate decision-making and business opportunities over the next decade. The talks build on a partnership announced earlier to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate infrastructure project and to cooperate on AI data centres, including floating offshore facilities.

The backdrop is a supply squeeze. Shortages across a broad array of memory products are straining the global electronics industry and pushing chip prices higher, while demand from data-centre operators sharpens competition for supplies. The five biggest players in the AI infrastructure race plan to spend more than US$3 trillion in the coming years, and memory accounts for roughly a third of data-centre spending, according to Token Times.

Altman is the latest American technology leader to make the trip. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Lisa Su have each visited South Korea twice since last year to strengthen supply-chain ties, and technology executives have warned that chip production is struggling to keep pace with demand.

Samsung is also pushing AI through its own operations, from research and manufacturing to marketing and corporate operations. For the companies building the next wave of AI infrastructure, the question is less whether demand exists than whether the memory to serve it can be made fast enough.