Altman successively visits South Korea and the UAE, OpenAI signs multiple cooperation deals on chips and AI applications

From semiconductor suppliers to energy companies and sovereign investment institutions, OpenAI is expanding cooperation on computing infrastructure and commercial applications in Asia.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently visited South Korea and the UAE in succession. On the evening of October 30, he arrived in South Korea, and the next day met with executives from Samsung Group and SK Group; on November 2, the Abu Dhabi authorities announced that Altman had met with the local crown prince and witnessed the signing of four cooperation agreements between OpenAI and local institutions, covering energy, government services, investment analysis and the promotion of AI applications.

Why did Altman visit South Korea and the UAE in such a short period?

The visit comes as global AI companies face multiple pressures from continuously growing computing investment, tightening semiconductor supply and rising financing costs, and as competitor Anthropic has already prepared for an IPO. The two places respectively possess the key resources OpenAI needs to expand its AI business: South Korea's advanced memory chips and semiconductor supply chain, and the UAE's energy, capital and large application market. As investment in AI infrastructure continues to expand, how to secure chip supply, share construction costs and drive commercialization is becoming an important issue for OpenAI.

South Korea: Meeting Samsung and SK, chip supply and data center cooperation in focus

Public information shows that Altman arrived in South Korea on the evening of October 30, and on the morning of October 31 at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, he exchanged views with about 50 Samsung Group executives. An official announcement released by Samsung Electronics the same day confirmed the event, with participants from multiple business areas including electronics, finance and biopharmaceuticals.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong did not attend the meeting. Samsung executives present included Jeon Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, Roh Tae-moon, head of the Device eXperience (DX) division, and executives from affiliated companies such as Samsung SDI and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

In addition to Samsung, Altman also met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. Industry observers speculate that high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply and AI data center construction may have been important topics of discussion, but the specific contents of the negotiations were not made public.

This visit appears more like a continuation of existing cooperation between the two sides. On October 1, 2025, OpenAI announced a Stargate-related strategic cooperation with Samsung and SK Group, planning to expand advanced memory chip supply and explore building AI data centers in South Korea. According to information disclosed by SK Group at the time, SK Hynix will participate in HBM supply for the Stargate project, while SK Telecom will explore with OpenAI the construction of an AI data center in southwestern South Korea.

There are also reports that before Altman arrived in South Korea, OpenAI staff responsible for the Stargate project had already traveled to South Korea and held multiple rounds of meetings with local companies to discuss the contract scale, chip supply conditions and other cooperation arrangements required for actual infrastructure construction.

For OpenAI, the importance of HBM supply is rising. As the scale of AI training and inference expands, high-performance memory chips have become an important factor affecting the supply of AI accelerators and system costs. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix hold important positions in the global memory chip market, and their future capacity, prices and supply arrangements will directly affect the cost and delivery pace of large AI infrastructure projects.

OpenAI is adjusting its new round of financing targets, and the market is becoming more cautious about the valuations and massive capital expenditures of frontier AI companies. Against this backdrop, some industry insiders also speculate that Altman may not only hope to expand chip supply cooperation but also be exploring arrangements such as jointly bearing infrastructure investment costs.

UAE: Four agreements cover energy, government and investment

After concluding his South Korea visit, Altman appeared in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. On November 2, the Abu Dhabi Government Media Office issued an announcement stating that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council met with Altman, and the two sides discussed topics including using AI to drive government transformation and innovation in key industries.

After the meeting, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi witnessed the signing of four cooperation agreements between OpenAI and local institutions. Unlike the South Korea trip, which mainly centered on existing cooperation and follow-up negotiations, the UAE side publicly disclosed specific cooperation areas and some application progress.

The first cooperation involves energy. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), G42's Inception42 and OpenAI reached an agreement to use OpenAI models for operations, investment and business decisions in the energy business. The related technology is planned to run on inference infrastructure located within the UAE. ADNOC said it hopes to use this to improve business efficiency and productivity, but has not disclosed the scale of project investment or quantifiable actual returns.

The second cooperation involves government services. The Abu Dhabi government and OpenAI launched the "Machine-Readable Government" project, which converts specific policies and regulations into forms that AI systems can process, assisting government personnel in conducting compliance assessments, including reviews related to the issuance of permits and certificates.

Among them, a food import approval pilot by the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority has already been put into operation. According to the official introduction, AI-generated assessments can be traced back to the corresponding regulations, and government personnel remain responsible for oversight and bear responsibility for final decisions. Compared with cooperation still in the planning stage, this pilot has entered practical application, but its processing efficiency, accuracy and cost savings have not yet been independently verified.

The third cooperation involves investment. Abu Dhabi sovereign investment institution Mubadala, Inception42 and OpenAI signed an agreement planning to use advanced AI capabilities for investment analysis, opportunity identification and risk assessment to assist investment decisions.

The fourth cooperation is aimed at broader commercial promotion. Inception42 and OpenAI signed a five-year agreement to jointly promote AI applications in the UAE's government, enterprise and education sectors, combining OpenAI's models and engineering capabilities with Inception42's application development and professional services capabilities to provide enterprise-level solutions for large local institutions.

The above four agreements did not disclose specific contract amounts, minimum purchase commitments or payment arrangements.

The UAE is also an important region for OpenAI's infrastructure and capital cooperation. Previously, OpenAI had participated in local large AI data center construction plans; Abu Dhabi investment institution MGX is also closely related to global AI industry investment. There are reports that OpenAI is seeking new investment commitments, and Abu Dhabi capital is one of the potential sources.

From South Korea to the UAE, the partners Altman engaged with cover different links in the AI industry chain. South Korea's Samsung and SK Group are involved in memory chips, data centers and power infrastructure; the UAE's energy companies, sovereign investment institutions and government departments correspond respectively to energy, capital and AI application needs.

For OpenAI, expanding model capabilities is only part of the competition. Whether it can obtain a stable chip supply, control data center construction costs and convert computing investment into sustained revenue is becoming an equally important issue.

As for whether Altman's trip has other destinations, OpenAI has not yet publicly disclosed.