SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who was visiting Korea, for lunch. According to business sources speaking on the 31st, Chey met Altman for lunch at an undisclosed location in Seoul that day. Key executives from SK hynix and SK Telecom reportedly also attended. The specific discussions have not been disclosed, but there is speculation that the two sides may have exchanged views on existing joint projects, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. The two sides established a strategic partnership in October 2025 to build global AI infrastructure, agreeing to cooperate on memory semiconductor supply and AI data center development in Korea. At the time, they met at the SK Seorin Building in Seoul's Jongno district and signed a letter of intent (LOI) on memory supply and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on AI data center cooperation in the southwestern region. Under those agreements, SK agreed to participate as a key partner in Stargate, OpenAI's large-scale AI infrastructure project. SK hynix presented a plan to establish a production system capable of meeting HBM supply requests equivalent to up to 900,000 DRAM wafers per month. SK Telecom agreed to jointly develop AI data centers with OpenAI in the southwestern region and, on that basis, cooperate on identifying AI use cases for businesses and consumers and developing next-generation data center technologies. Chey and Altman have continued their exchanges since then. They also met at the AI Summit held in San Francisco in July 2026, exchanging views on the long-term direction of cooperation in AI infrastructure.
Original Korean article: ETNews
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
