Sam Altman meets Samsung leadership to secure more memory for data centers

Memory shortage at the center of the talks

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with about 50 senior Samsung executives at the company's Resources Development Center in Yongin, South Korea, on Saturday, October 30. The meeting brought together heads of Samsung's financial, electronics and biotechnology businesses.

Samsung said the discussion focused on strengthening existing ties between the two companies. It pointed to a letter of intent signed in October 2025 to cooperate on global AI infrastructure, including supplying memory semiconductors for OpenAI's Stargate project. Samsung did not announce a new memory supply agreement, however, emphasizing AI transformation and future business opportunities instead.

Demand outpaces supply

The meeting comes as demand from AI data centers keeps climbing. AMD forecasts DRAM revenue will jump 177% in 2026 to about $416 billion. TrendForce estimates DRAM supply will fall 1% to 2% short of demand this year, with the imbalance expected to worsen in 2027. Micron has warned that new manufacturing capacity will take time, meaning the shortage could persist into 2028.

South Korea's central role

Samsung and SK Hynix hold a dominant position in memory. According to Counterpoint Research, the two companies controlled about 63% of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter of 2026 and roughly 83% of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) revenue used in AI devices. That has drawn other executives to the country; AMD CEO Lisa Su visited earlier this month to discuss securing additional HBM supplies from Samsung.

The memory-sharing debate

Altman recently argued that DRAM inside personal computers is often underused and that data centers could make more intensive use of memory by sharing resources across AI workloads. The argument drew criticism given that services like ChatGPT rely heavily on centralized computing infrastructure.