Altman Meets About 50 Samsung Executives in South Korea as Memory Shortage Persists

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flew to South Korea over the weekend without advance notice and sat down with about 50 Samsung executives. He left the country on Saturday, according to local media reports cited by CNBC.

Samsung said the meeting took place Saturday in Yongin, south of Seoul. The executives came from its electronics, finance and biotechnology affiliates. Tom's Hardware, citing Bloomberg, reported the meeting was held at Samsung's Resources Development Center in Yongin.

What Samsung said was discussed

Samsung's statement described the talks in broad terms: the direction of AI technology development, its potential applications, and the new markets and business opportunities that will follow. Samsung also said the discussion covered AI's impact on corporate decision-making and operations.

Samsung did not announce a new memory supply agreement. According to Tom's Hardware, the talks centered on strengthening the existing relationship, particularly a letter of intent signed in October 2025 to cooperate on global AI infrastructure, including supplying memory semiconductors for OpenAI's Stargate project.

Altman also gave the head of Samsung's AI Center a Codex Micro Keyboard, a device designed for use with OpenAI's coding agent, according to Tom's Hardware.

The SK Group lunch

South Korean media reported that Altman also had lunch Saturday with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. Senior executives from SK Hynix and SK Telecom were reportedly in attendance.

Local media reports said the two sides may have discussed cooperation on AI chips and data centers, including existing plans for high-bandwidth memory supplies and AI data center development. Participants gave no details. SK Hynix told CNBC it was unable to confirm the reported meeting.

Why memory is the pressure point

The trip comes during a tight memory market. TrendForce estimates DRAM supply will fall 1% to 2% short of demand this year, with the imbalance expected to worsen in 2027. Because new manufacturing capacity takes time to come online, the shortage could persist into 2028, according to a recent warning from Micron, as reported by Tom's Hardware.

High-bandwidth memory, the specialized DRAM used in AI devices, has become particularly important. Samsung and SK Hynix are among the world's leading memory manufacturers; Tom's Hardware, citing Counterpoint Research, reported the two accounted for roughly 83% of global HBM revenue.

The five largest companies in the AI infrastructure race plan to spend more than $3 trillion in the coming years, according to ETEnterpriseAI. Memory accounts for around a third of data center spending, the outlet reported.

Altman is not the only executive making the trip. ETEnterpriseAI reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su have each visited South Korea twice since last year to strengthen supply-chain ties.

The history behind the visit

Altman last visited South Korea in October 2025. He met President Lee Jae Myung, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, and announced partnerships with Samsung and SK Group as part of OpenAI's Stargate initiative, according to CNBC.

Under those agreements, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix outlined plans to ramp up production of advanced memory chips, while OpenAI and its South Korean partners agreed to explore developing AI data centers in the country. ETEnterpriseAI reported that the earlier partnership includes collaboration on AI data centers, including floating offshore facilities.

Jay Y. Lee also met Altman in July at OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco, according to Samsung.

Altman's memory comments draw fire

The visit follows remarks Altman made on the Chick Pink podcast this week about how the world's limited memory supply should be allocated. He argued that DRAM sitting inside personal computers is often underused, describing it as "quite terrible." He suggested data centers could make more intensive use of memory by sharing computer resources across AI workloads, Tom's Hardware reported.

The argument drew widespread criticism, the outlet reported, given that OpenAI's own services such as ChatGPT rely heavily on centralized computing infrastructure. PCs, smartphones and other electronics compete with data centers for limited memory supplies.

TechBuzz reported that OpenAI recently cut its fundraising targets, and framed the Seoul trip as part of a push to secure chip partnerships. TechBuzz also reported that neither OpenAI, Samsung nor SK Group had issued official statements about the meetings or their outcomes at the time of its writing.

What comes next

A letter of intent is not a supply contract. Samsung announced no new memory supply agreement after the weekend talks, and no source reports binding volumes, prices or delivery dates.

It remains open whether either company announces firm commitments, or whether the Seoul meetings stay at the level of intentions while the shortage runs into 2027.