OpenAI Reaches Preliminary Agreement with Samsung and SK Hynix to Supply Chips for the “Stargate” Project

On October 1, 2025 local time, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company, announced the establishment of a cooperative relationship with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the South Korean chip giants, to provide chips and other solutions for its “Stargate” project.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, announced this news after meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, as well as the chairmen of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix at the Presidential Office in Seoul. In January of this year, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint investment plan named “Stargate”. The main investors are OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle. The plan aims to invest $100 billion in building AI computing servers, and the investment amount will expand to $500 billion within four years.

According to the statements released by Samsung and SK Hynix, both sides have promised to accelerate the production of advanced chips to meet the growing storage needs of OpenAI in the “Stargate” project. Samsung and SK Hynix are the two largest memory chip manufacturers in the world and currently jointly account for approximately 70% of the global Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) market share and nearly 80% of the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market share.

Kim Yong-beom, the head of the Policy Office of the South Korean Presidential Office, revealed that OpenAI plans to purchase 900,000 semiconductor wafers in 2029 and establish a joint venture with Samsung and SK Hynix to build two data centers in South Korea with an initial capacity of 20 megawatts. Kim Yong-beom said, “Without the memory chips from these two companies, important parts of the ‘Stargate’ project would not be achievable.”

In addition to the chip supply agreement, Samsung SDS, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, has signed a cooperation agreement with OpenAI to develop, build, and operate AI data centers under the framework of the “Stargate” project while expanding enterprise-level AI services. Furthermore, Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung C&T will also cooperate with OpenAI to research and develop offshore floating data centers. SK Telecom, a subsidiary of the SK Group, will join hands with OpenAI to jointly build a dedicated OpenAI data center in the southwest of South Korea.

This cooperation has also received support at the South Korean government level. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung expressed his hope that Samsung and SK Hynix, together with OpenAI, can play a crucial role in the global popularization of AI.