OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to meet Samsung to make AI semiconductor chips

OpenAI CEO could create a chip venture in partnership with Samsung and SK Hynix to make AI-focused semiconductor chips

A new report from Reuters claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is visiting South Korea. He will reportedly meet Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to discuss a potential partnership for making semiconductor chips that are specialized for AI processing. Apparently, Sam Altman is trying to raise billions of dollars to create a chip venture in which chip foundries are partners with OpenAI. Samsung and SK Hynix both make HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) chips that are used in high-performance computing chips that are used for most AI-based tasks. Sam Altman will reportedly meet the top executive of Samsung Semiconductor business arm, along with heads of Samsung Foundry (manufactures semiconductor chips for other firms), Samsung Memory (designs DRAM, HBM, and NAND flash chips), and System LSI (designs application processors like Exynos) divisions.

While SK Hynix only designs and sells memory chips, Samsung Electronics can also manufacture semiconductor chips through its Samsung Foundry arm. It is among the only three companies in the world that can make 7nm or more advanced semiconductor chips. TSMC is the market leader right now, while Samsung Foundry is the second best. Intel has also recently started making advanced chips for other firms through the newly founded IFS (Intel Foundry Services) firm.

SK Hynix recently announced that it wants to become a “total AI memory provider.” In the last quarter of 2023, it surprisingly posted profit, and the upcoming quarters seem positive for the company. Samsung Semiconductor, too, expects the memory market to improve after a year of a glut that made the company post the first loss in its history.