Katarzyna Petru
Samsung and OpenAI announced the signing of a letter of intent (LOI) to initiate a strategic partnership in the development of global artificial intelligence infrastructure. The project will involve Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, Samsung C&T, and Samsung Heavy Industries – each bringing its experience from various industries: from semiconductors, through data centres and cloud services, to construction and marine technologies.
The signing ceremony took place at Samsung's headquarters in Seoul, attended by Young Hyun Joon (Vice President and CEO of Samsung Electronics), Sung-an Choi (CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries), Sechul Oh (CEO of Samsung C&T), and Junehee Lee (CEO of Samsung SDS).
Samsung Electronics – strategic partner for memory for OpenAI
Samsung Electronics will play a key role as the strategic memory supplier for the OpenAI Stargate project – a global network of AI super data centres. According to estimates, OpenAI's demand for memory could reach 900,000 DRAM wafers per month. Samsung aims to meet this demand by providing energy-efficient and high-performance memory chips.
The company also emphasises that, with its expertise in logic, foundry, and advanced chip packaging techniques, it can offer complete solutions for the entire AI process – from training models to inference.
Samsung SDS – joint AI data centres and services for business
Samsung SDS is to collaborate with OpenAI in designing and building new AI data centres. This will include consulting, implementations, and infrastructure management for businesses looking to integrate OpenAI models into their systems.
Interestingly, SDS has also signed a reseller agreement for OpenAI services in Korea, which will give local enterprises easier access to ChatGPT Enterprise.
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries – floating data centres
One of the most interesting aspects of the collaboration is the joint development of floating data centres. This is still a niche solution, but it has significant potential: it can reduce cooling costs, solve the issue of lack of space for traditional server rooms, and lower CO₂ emissions.
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries also plan to explore possibilities in floating power plants and control centres that could support this infrastructure.
Broader ambitions of Samsung
Collaboration with OpenAI fits into Samsung's strategy, which aims to make Korea one of the three most important countries in the world in AI. The company also announces that it plans to implement ChatGPT more widely within its structures to accelerate digital transformation processes.
At this moment, the details of the Stargate project and the implementation schedule remain unclear, but the direction is clear: Samsung is betting on AI as the foundation of its future – and in many industries simultaneously.
This partnership is more than just another contract on memory – it seems that Samsung and OpenAI want to genuinely push the boundaries in building AI infrastructure. The only question is how quickly floating data centres and the new generation of server rooms will actually come into use.
