Last week, it was revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited South Korea to meet executives from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix for a possible alliance for AI chips. It has now been revealed that he visited Samsung's semiconductor chip plant in the country, and it is possible that OpenAI will develop its own chips for AI processing.
OpenAI could design in-house AI processing chips with help of Samsung and SK Hynix
It is being reported by ETNews that Sam Altman arrived in South Korea on January 26 and then toured Samsung's semiconductor chip plant in Pyeongtaek in the presence of Samsung Device Solutions CEO Kye Hyun Kyung. There are three production lines in Pyeongtaek, and they make advanced DRAM, foundry, and NAND flash chips. After visiting these chip plants, Sam Altman reportedly met with Kye Hyun Kyung again at the company's headquarters in the Seocho District. This entire trip's schedule was kept in private, though.
Apparently, Sam Altman also met SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and SK Hynix President Kwak No-jeong at the Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. SK Hynix is the second biggest memory chip maker in the world, after Samsung. OpenAI is reportedly looking to create an ‘AI Chip Alliance' in collaboration with Samsung and SK Hynix. If things go as planned, these three firms could also attract investments from other firms for this alliance. As per some reports, Sam Altman is trying to raise investments of trillions of dollars for this project.
If OpenAI collaborates with Samsung, it can design its own chips and use Samsung's DRAM, HBM, and NAND flash chips with them. Moreover, those in-house chips can be manufactured by Samsung Foundry using advanced semiconductor chip fabrication methods. HBM is an important part of AI processing, and Samsung and SK Hynix control 90% of the HBM market. OpenAI CEO reportedly already discussed his plans of how and where to build AI chips with the members of the U.S. Congress.
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