OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Visit Korea June 14-15 for Meetings with Samsung and Kakao

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to visit South Korea from June 14 to 15 to meet with executives and employees from Samsung Electronics and Kakao.

As Samsung Electronics accelerates its AI transformation (AX) through the adoption of generative AI, the discussions are expected to focus on the changes brought by AI technology and directions for workplace innovation.

With Kakao, the visit is expected to involve discussions on new AI service collaborations following their strategic partnership established last year.

According to industry sources on June 11, CEO Altman will arrive in Korea on the afternoon of June 14. The following day, June 15, he will visit Samsung Electronics' Digital City in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to hold a "DX Insight Talk" event with employees from the Device Experience (DX) division.

The event was organized following Samsung Electronics' recent official internal adoption of external generative AI services, including ChatGPT, Gemini Enterprise, and Claude.

During the event, CEO Altman is scheduled to give a lecture on the changes driven by advancements in AI technology and the direction of AI-based workplace innovation.

He is also expected to exchange views with Samsung employees on improving work productivity using AI and transforming work processes.

Samsung Electronics aims to enhance work productivity and organizational execution across the board through the adoption of external generative AI, while pushing for AI-centered workplace innovation.

In this regard, Samsung has recently been accelerating the adoption of generative AI and the promotion of AX across all its affiliates.

It is also reported that during his visit, CEO Altman will meet with Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a to discuss ways to expand cooperation between the two companies.

In particular, the two sides are expected to focus on strengthening the integration between the conversation context of KakaoTalk, Kakao's core service, and ChatGPT.

This marks CEO Altman's return to Korea in about eight months, following his previous visit last October.

Attention is focused on whether this visit will lead to more concrete developments in the "Stargate" partnership established with Samsung and SK during his last trip.

At that time, CEO Altman held consecutive meetings with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, signing Letters of Intent (LOI) and establishing strategic partnerships with both groups to build global core AI infrastructure.

The partnership centers on supplying high-performance, low-power memory for the "Stargate" project, an initiative being pursued by OpenAI worth approximately $500 billion.

The Stargate project is a joint effort by OpenAI, U.S. software and cloud company Oracle, and Japanese investment firm SoftBank to build large-scale AI data centers in the United States, with a planned investment of $500 billion (approximately 726 trillion won) over four years.

OpenAI has projected that the Stargate project will require high-performance DRAM at a scale of 900,000 wafers per month.

To meet this demand, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have agreed to expand production of advanced memory chips and introduce high-performance, high-capacity products necessary to run OpenAI's advanced AI models.

Meanwhile, CEO Altman is expected to depart from Korea on the evening of June 15 after concluding his major domestic schedule.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.