Last updated: June 12th, 2026 at 14:10 UTC+02:00
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Company says it's due to personal circumstances.
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Samsung
OpenAI and Samsung have been talking about a potential collaboration over AI chips for a couple of years now. Many of Samsung's group companies also recently signed on to provide the ChatGPT-maker with different services as it builds out massive data centers.
However, it was recently reported that work on a custom AI chip with Samsung has been paused. Whether a consequence of this or not, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has now cancelled his trip to South Korea which was scheduled for next week.
According to Korean reports, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was due in South Korea for various meetings on June 14 and June 15, 2026. He was expected to meet major South Korean companies during this visit, including Samsung Electronics, Kakao, and Naver.
Altman was also scheduled to attend the “DX Insight Talk” event to be held at the Samsung Electronics Digital City, in addition to meetings with top Samsung executives TM Roh and Jeon Young-hyun.
OpenAI has only said that Altman's trip has been postponed due to unavoidable personal circumstances, but the company hasn't highlighted if and when this trip will be rescheduled.
It was reported last month that Samsung was developing a custom inference processing unit for OpenAI. However, work on that project was said to be stalled due to strategic differences between OpenAI and Samsung.
The trip would likely have not been worth it if it didn't move the needle on OpenAI's current strategic goals. Nevertheless, given how Samsung is increasingly becoming vital to the current AI landscape, OpenAI's CEO may find himself back in South Korea sooner rather than later.
Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.
