President Lee Jae-myung met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at 6 p.m. on the 1st at the Presidential Office and discussed ways to expand cooperation between OpenAI and our corporations. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won joined the meeting.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited Korea to expand memory semiconductor (HBM) cooperation with SK and Samsung. Before the meeting with the president, OpenAI signed a letter of intent (LOI) for a memory semiconductor (HBM) cooperation partnership for the large-scale AI infrastructure project OpenAI is pursuing, the "Stargate project," separately with SK and Samsung.
The Presidential Office said the collaboration between OpenAI and Samsung and SK is significant in that OpenAI, the No. 1 global AI company, and Samsung and SK, global semiconductor suppliers, have laid the foundation for sustainable cooperation. It added, "Through this LOI, our semiconductor corporations have secured an early demand source as partners in Stargate, the world's largest AI infrastructure project, which will be a good opportunity for the growth of the domestic semiconductor industry."
Altman also signed a memorandum of understanding ("MoU") with the Ministry of Science and ICT for a national AI grand transition and AI ecosystem development, and agreed to mutually cooperate so that Korea can leap forward as an AI hub in the Asia-Pacific by supporting the domestic AI ecosystem, advancing regional economies based on AI, promoting a transition to public AX, and fostering AI talent and startups.
The president said he "highly values CEO Sam Altman's leadership, which has brought a civilizational shift to humanity with revolutionary technology and presented a new vision," and noted, "Korea is accelerating the expansion of the AI highway, and through this cooperation between the Korean government and OpenAI, we expect Korea's AI ecosystem to advance significantly."
He also said, "The spread of AI is impossible without semiconductors, and since Samsung and SK account for a major pillar of the global market, the Stargate memory semiconductor (HBM) supply partnership LOI signed by the three corporations is a win-win partnership that will lead the global market," adding, "We hope cooperation with OpenAI will also lead to an expansion of domestic exports and job creation." He added, "We hope Samsung and SK will play a key role in the global spread of AI together with OpenAI."