Kim Kyoung-hoon, general manager of OpenAI Korea. (Yonhap)

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OpenAI Inc. announced on Thursday that it is working with South Korea’s Samsung and SK Groups on the Stargate Project, its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure development initiative.

Kim Kyoung-hoon, general manager of OpenAI Korea, told reporters that the company is running two Stargate projects in Korea, adding the Stargate headquarters team visited Seoul this week and met with partners, Samsung and SK.

He did not disclose specific investment plans or financial details.

The Stargate Project is a public-private cooperative initiative to build next-generation infrastructure, including large-scale data centers, to power advanced AI.

The project is being led by OpenAI, Oracle Corp. SoftBank Group, and others.

One flagship plan is to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years to build a 10-gigawatt data center in the United States.

The company plans to build additional infrastructure in various countries by partnering with leading corporations in each region, and in Korea, Samsung and SK have been selected as partners.

During his visit to Korea in October, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with Samsung Electronics Co. Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee and signed a letter of intent for cooperation on building global AI infrastructure.

Under this agreement, Samsung Electronics will supply memory required for the Stargate Project, while Samsung SDS Co. will handle the design, construction, and operation of the data centers.

Kim noted that Samsung SDS will become the first official channel partner, noting that the contract is expected to be finalized and officially announced later this month.

For SK Group, SK hynix Inc. has signed an LOI to supply high bandwidth memory (HBM) to OpenAI, while SK telecom Co. plans to build a dedicated OpenAI data center in the southwest region of Korea.

Regarding the data center construction, Kim noted that time is the most critical factor, so they are discussing ways to shorten the construction period and selecting the most suitable site.

Kim added that more than 1 million businesses worldwide are adopting OpenAI technology and transitioning to AI, emphasizing that it will do its utmost not only for companies but also for Korea’s nationwide AI transformation.