Katarzyna Petru
Samsung and OpenAI have announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) that aims 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 contributing their 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, among others, Young Hyun Jun (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
A key role will be played by Samsung Electronics, which will be 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 intends to meet these requirements by providing energy-efficient and high-performance memory chips.
The company also emphasises that, thanks to its experience 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 the design and construction of new AI data centres. This will include consultancy, implementation, and infrastructure management for companies looking to integrate OpenAI models into their systems.
Interestingly, SDS has also signed a reseller agreement for OpenAI services in Korea, allowing local businesses easier access to ChatGPT Enterprise.
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries – floating data centres
One of the most interesting points of collaboration is the joint development of floating data centres. This is still a niche solution, but it has considerable potential: it can reduce cooling costs, solve the problem of lack of land for traditional server rooms, and lower CO₂ emissions.
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries also plan to explore opportunities in floating power plants and control centres that could support this infrastructure.
Wider ambitions of Samsung
Collaboration with OpenAI aligns with Samsung's strategy, which aims to make Korea one of the three most important countries in the world in the field of AI. The company also announces that it plans to implement ChatGPT more broadly within its structures to accelerate digital transformation processes.
At this moment, the details of the Stargate project and the deployment schedule remain unclear, but the direction is evident: Samsung is betting on AI as the foundation of its future – and this across multiple industries simultaneously.
This partnership is more than just another memory contract – 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.
