The visit and the stops
Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, made a two-day visit to South Korea starting October 30, according to the source ETNews. It was his first return to Seoul after a year, following the October 2025 trip; an earlier June schedule, which was to have included Samsung, Naver and Kakao, had been postponed.
The trip was read by the industry as a further step in cooperation on artificial intelligence and semiconductors, after last July's government summit in San Francisco. Altman was accompanied by OpenAI executives, including hardware vice president Richard Ho, head of people Arvind KC, and Asia-Pacific and Japan heads Kiran Mani and Andreas Hartl.
The talks with Korean leaders
The first stop was a lunch with SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and executives from SK Hynix and SK Telecom. The source specifies that the contents of the discussion were not disclosed, but reports the unconfirmed hypothesis of a discussion on the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and on data centers linked to the Stargate project.
Altman then met with about fifty presidents of Samsung group companies at the Yongin training center, addressing the theme of the next ten years of artificial intelligence and companies' strategic choices. The indicated context is Samsung's company-wide adoption of ChatGPT, which is accelerating the transition to AI. OpenAI Korea also took part in the meeting, describing the summit as part of cooperation extending beyond infrastructure to AI adoption and management strategy across the group's various companies.
The remarks and open questions
According to the source, Altman said that the use of AI alone will not guarantee a lasting competitive advantage, but that the difference will depend on the ability to use it to move faster and create better products. He then expressed expectations for collaboration with Samsung, arguing that there is an opportunity to provide high-quality AI at scale. He also gave executives a keyboard designed for use with the Codex coding agent, explaining that in a world where instructions are given by voice, a full keyboard is not necessarily needed.
Several elements remain to be verified: the source does not report the outcomes of the discussions with SK nor confirmations on HBM and Stargate. No agreements signed during the visit are indicated, and the reference to an October 2025 Stargate agreement and to Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong's visit to San Francisco in summer 2026 is cited as context of cooperation already under way. As for the location of AI data centers, the source mentions Pohang, in Gyeongbuk, as a candidate for the southeast with Samsung, and Jangseong, in the Gwangju area, as a candidate for the southwest with SK, but these are reported hypotheses, not confirmed decisions.
Why it matters
The visit is significant because it links two fronts: the supply of components for computing infrastructure and the adoption of generative AI within a large industrial group. The source links the meeting to OpenAI's desire to accelerate the construction of data centers in Korea, but offers no confirmation on timelines or investments. The available information therefore allows for describing a strengthening of dialogue, not for certifying operational results.
