Samsung's Lee Jae-yong meets OpenAI's Altman at San Francisco HQ

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met at OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters to discuss cooperation in AI and semiconductors.

OpenAI confirmed Sunday that Lee and Altman held the meeting at its San Francisco offices on Saturday morning local time.

OpenAI did not disclose the specific topics or agenda, but the two sides are expected to have discussed expanding cooperation in AI infrastructure — including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM and advanced foundry services.

The talks may also have covered Samsung's broader "AI transformation" initiative, which aims to integrate generative AI across its entire business operations.

Samsung Electronics is one of OpenAI's largest corporate customers globally and has committed to rolling out ChatGPT and the AI coding tool Codex to all of its employees.

The two companies signed a strategic partnership in October last year, pursuing collaboration on expanding production of advanced memory chips and building next-generation AI infrastructure.

OpenAI regards the cooperative framework it established with the South Korean government, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as the first country-level strategic partnership it has announced in the Asia-Pacific region.

Before meeting Lee, Altman sat down with President Lee Jae-myung on Friday and attended the San Francisco AI Summit.