OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has confirmed the company is working with Samsung Electronics on the development of next-generation chips for artificial intelligence. The statement was made during a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and executives from Samsung and semiconductor firm SK Hynix in the San Francisco Bay Area in early December.
The meeting focused on strengthening cooperation between the U.S.-based AI research company and South Korea’s leading technology firms. According to a statement from the South Korean presidential office, Altman expressed interest in collaborating on the production of AI chips, particularly in the area of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). HBM is a type of high-performance memory crucial for processing the large datasets required by advanced AI models like OpenAI’s GPT series.
“As the volume of data and the need for large-scale computation increase, the importance of memory chips that can rapidly process vast amounts of data is growing,” Altman said during the discussion, as reported by South Korean officials.
This collaboration marks a deepening of the relationship between OpenAI and Samsung. Samsung’s venture capital arm has previously invested in OpenAI, and the electronics giant utilizes OpenAI’s technology for some of its enterprise services. The new focus on hardware development comes as multiple reports from technology and financial news outlets have indicated OpenAI’s intention to develop its own AI accelerator chips to reduce its reliance on third-party hardware.
Currently, the market for AI chips is led by Nvidia Corp., whose graphic processing units (GPUs) are widely used for training and running large language models. High demand for these components has led to supply constraints and increased costs across the industry.
Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of memory chips, including the HBM technology specified by Altman. The company competes with SK Hynix and U.S.-based Micron Technology in the advanced semiconductor market.
Neither OpenAI nor Samsung Electronics has released further details specifying the scope, timeline, or financial terms of the chip development collaboration. The discussions represent an ongoing trend of AI software developers seeking closer integration with hardware manufacturers to create more efficient and powerful systems for future AI applications.
 aims to boost AI processing efficiency and reduce hardware reliance.){kind=link}