Korea, Close to China, Hosts Top Leaders from Korea, US, and Japan... Samsung, OpenAI, and SoftBank Join Forces on AI

Altman and Son Visit Samsung's Seocho Building
Nearly Two-Hour Meeting with Chairman Lee Jaeyong
Proposed and Discussed Cooperation on 'Stargate'
Possibility of Collaboration Including Semiconductor Support
Significance in Countering China's DeepSeek

Samsung Electronics, OpenAI, and SoftBank Group. The heads of companies representing South Korea, the United States, and Japan gathered at Samsung Electronics' Seocho Building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to explore cooperation plans for building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, drawing global attention. Amid the national circumstances of South Korea, the United States, and Japan, where checks and responses to the rapid rise of China's AI startup 'DeepSeek' have become urgent in the AI market, interest is focused on whether the alliance of these three companies will take the lead in opening new paths.

Sam Altman, CEO and founder of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is attending the 'Kakao Media Day' held at the Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 4th, having a conversation with Jeong Sin-ah, CEO of Kakao. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

At around 2:40 p.m. on the 4th, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Masayoshi Son (Son Jeong-ui in Korean), Chairman of SoftBank Group, visited the Seocho Building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and held a nearly two-hour "trilateral meeting" with Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics. Also present at the meeting were Rene Haas, CEO of the British semiconductor design company Arm, and Jeon Young-hyun, Vice Chairman and Head of Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) Division.

The meeting between Chairman Lee and CEO Altman was originally scheduled, but Chairman Son's participation was reportedly arranged suddenly. Chairman Son had initially come to South Korea for other engagements but, upon hearing that CEO Altman and Chairman Lee?both longtime close acquaintances who have cooperated closely in the AI market?were meeting, he set aside his other plans to join.

The focus of the three-way meeting appeared to be proposing and discussing potential cooperation related to the AI joint venture 'Stargate' being established in the United States. Before entering Samsung's Seocho Building, Chairman Son told reporters, "We plan to discuss the progress of Stargate and potential cooperation with Samsung." However, when asked whether he intended to request investment from Samsung for Stargate, he drew a clear line, saying, "No."

Stargate is an AI joint venture announced last month on the 21st by OpenAI and SoftBank in partnership with Oracle, a U.S. software company. The parties declared plans to invest $500 billion (approximately 729 trillion KRW) over four years in this company and to build large-scale AI infrastructure such as data centers in the United States. The project is also named 'Stargate.'

It is speculated that CEO Altman and Chairman Son proposed to Chairman Lee that Samsung support the Stargate project in various ways, including supplying the necessary semiconductors. Building data centers requires a large volume of AI chips equipped with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products. Additionally, solid-state drives (eSSD) and GDDR7 memory for AI PCs are also needed. To address heat issues that may arise when operating data centers, 'heating and cooling air conditioning solutions' using home appliances are also necessary. Samsung is practically the only South Korean company equipped to provide all these elements comprehensively. CEO Altman and Chairman Son likely recognized not only the long-standing trust relationship with Chairman Lee but also Samsung's multifaceted industrial competitiveness. If Samsung actively participates in the Stargate project cooperation, the combination of OpenAI and Oracle's software, Samsung's semiconductors and hardware, and SoftBank's massive financial support and investment power could form an 'Avengers'-level alliance.

Son Jeong-ui, Chairman of SoftBank Group, Visits Samsung Seocho Building Photo by Yonhap News

Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, Yonhap News

This alliance appears to have been largely realized through CEO Altman's proactive efforts, with the recent emergence of China's DeepSeek, which launched the AI platform 'R1' at a low cost, posing a threat to OpenAI's ChatGPT status. DeepSeek shocked the AI market by releasing R1, which offers performance comparable to ChatGPT despite using relatively low-cost, low-performance AI chips. Since then, it has gradually increased demand in the AI market, threatening ChatGPT's position, which, although top-performing, has been a burden to companies due to its high price. Against this backdrop, CEO Altman likely intended to showcase to the world the alliance of South Korean, American, and Japanese companies and their capability to take on newer and larger challenges.

There is also analysis that the choice of South Korea as the meeting location is not insignificant. South Korea is one of the countries with very high utilization of ChatGPT globally and is geographically closest to China among South Korea, the United States, and Japan. Holding the meeting near China may have been intended to demonstrate confidence in competition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.