The collaboration between Samsung, SK Hynix, and OpenAI to enhance AI infrastructure has triggered a significant surge in the market value of the South Korean tech giants. Following the announcement of their partnership, Samsung and SK Hynix witnessed a combined market capitalization increase of $37 billion. The news also drove their stock prices to record levels, with Samsung Electronics climbing over 4% to its highest mark since January 2021, and SK Hynix soaring over 12% to an all-time high. This surge also propelled the KOSPI index, the benchmark index of the South Korean stock market, to a record high.
The partnership involves supplying memory chips for OpenAI's data centers and contributing to OpenAI's Stargate initiative, a $500 billion project aimed at constructing a global network of hyperscale AI data centers by 2029. As part of this initiative, OpenAI is also collaborating with the South Korean chipmakers to build two data centers in South Korea. These partnerships will focus on increasing the supply of advanced memory chips essential for next-generation AI and expanding data center capacity in Korea, positioning Samsung and SK as key contributors to global AI infrastructure and supporting Korea's ambition to become a top-three global AI nation. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plan to scale up production of advanced memory chips, targeting 900,000 DRAM wafer starts per month at an accelerated capacity rollout, critical for powering OpenAI's advanced AI models.
The agreement underscores the relentless demand for AI hardware and reinforces expectations of an extended memory upcycle. JP Morgan has forecasted that the market for AI-focused memory chips will more than double to $112 billion in 2027 from $43 billion in 2025, with AI-related sales accounting for over half of all memory revenue, versus the current 33%.
Samsung and SK Hynix are among the world's largest producers of memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that power AI data centers. SK Hynix is a key supplier of HBM chips to Nvidia, while both SK Hynix and Samsung supply HBM chips to Broadcom, which is making custom AI chips for OpenAI. Together, they aim to help meet OpenAI's memory demand, which is projected to reach up to 900,000 DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) wafers per month.
Furthermore, OpenAI's strategic partnerships extend beyond Samsung and SK Hynix. OpenAI has also forged a multi-billion dollar agreement with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to utilize its MI450 chips to power AI products. The deal specifies that OpenAI will utilize AMD's upcoming MI450 chips to support 6 gigawatts of compute power for its portfolio of AI products. In addition to the hardware procurement, the agreement grants OpenAI the option to purchase up to 160 million shares of AMD, which represents a stake of approximately 10% in the company.
These strategic alliances highlight the increasing importance of South Korean chipmakers in the global AI landscape and the intensifying competition among tech giants to dominate the AI infrastructure market.
