OpenAI Deepens Ties with Samsung on Next-Generation Chips

SEOUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) - OpenAI is working more closely with Samsung Electronics on next-generation chips as the ChatGPT maker develops its own silicon, expanding ties with the South Korean technology giant across semiconductors and enterprise AI services.

Harrison Kim, general manager of OpenAI Korea, said at a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday that joint production and research on next-generation chips was one of the areas where the company had made the most progress and gained the most recognition with Samsung Electronics, but he declined to elaborate.

Kim also said Samsung Electronics was one of the largest deployments of ChatGPT globally, with employees in Korea and overseas using it for research and development, marketing, and sales.

Samsung Electronics said in a statement it could not confirm information related to customers.

In June, OpenAI introduced its first custom AI chip, designed together with Broadcom. The chip, called Jalapeno, was developed by OpenAI's engineers alongside Broadcom for AI inference—the process of crunching data to answer queries in applications like ChatGPT.

OpenAI said at the time that Taiwan's TSMC would manufacture the chips.

Last year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate data center project.

Kim added that demand for memory chips would continue to grow as more advanced chips are required for faster and more complex computing, making cooperation with South Korean semiconductor suppliers a priority for OpenAI's local office.

The cooperation comes as Samsung broadens its use of generative AI. In June, the company said employees in its Device eXperience division, which oversees mobile phones, televisions, and home appliances, would be allowed to use ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude internally.

OpenAI said the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users at South Korean companies and institutions surged approximately 28-fold as of the end of August from a year earlier, as businesses widened their use of AI from individual tasks to company-wide operations.

Companies were increasingly deploying AI across functions such as legal, sales, finance, marketing, and operations, OpenAI said, declining to provide absolute user numbers.

South Korea had the largest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers outside the United States as of late last year, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI expects adoption to accelerate after the September 4 launch of GPT-6 Astra, its latest model, which it says offers improved performance in computer use, professional work, science, coding, and cybersecurity.