SEOUL — Shares of South Korea’s semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix soared on Thursday, following the announcement of significant chip supply deals with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The agreements mark a pivotal moment in the global race to build next-generation AI data centers and are at the heart of OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate project in the United States.

Samsung Electronics shares jumped nearly 5% in early trading, while SK Hynix surged 12%, reflecting investor optimism about the massive scale and global significance of the deal. The partnership will see both companies provide advanced memory semiconductors to OpenAI to support the unprecedented computational requirements of emerging artificial intelligence workloads.

The Stargate Project: A New AI Frontier

Unveiled in January 2025 as an ambitious endeavor, Stargate is envisioned as the world’s largest AI-centric data infrastructure initiative, with a projected $500 billion price tag over the next five years. Designed to keep the United States at the forefront of machine intelligence, the project will involve the construction of cutting-edge data centers powered by the latest hardware from leading suppliers and coordinated by OpenAI’s suite of generative AI technologies.

The Stargate project is being driven by surging global demand for generative AI applications, including language models, image and video generation, and automated industrial intelligence. These systems require not only powerful processors, such as those supplied by NVIDIA and AMD, but also tremendous amounts of high-performance memory chips where Samsung and SK Hynix hold leading positions worldwide.

Korean Chipmakers at the Heart of AI Expansion

The agreements between OpenAI and Korea’s top memory suppliers are a testament to the countries’ vital role in AI infrastructure. Both Samsung, the world’s largest producer of DRAM and NAND flash, and SK Hynix, a dominant player in dynamic memory, bring scale and innovation that are essential to sustaining explosive growth in AI workloads.

According to industry data from TrendForce, the global market for AI-specific semiconductors and memory chips is expected to more than double by 2028, exceeding $200 billion in annual sales. This projected expansion is fueled by relentless AI adoption in sectors such as cloud computing, autonomous vehicles, finance, healthcare, and entertainment.

Lee Jeong-bae, President of Samsung’s Memory Business, remarked, “This collaboration with OpenAI reinforces our commitment to support technological evolution with world-leading memory solutions for AI applications.” A spokesperson from SK Hynix stated, “We’re proud to provide the backbone for what’s expected to be one of the world’s most sophisticated AI data infrastructures.”

Rally in Semiconductor Stocks and Strategic Implications

The surge in stock prices comes on the heels of a challenging period for the sector. Over the past two years, the semiconductor industry has faced supply chain disruptions, cyclical downturns, and geopolitical risks—from US-China tech tensions to export controls on advanced chip technology. However, the transition to an “AI-first” paradigm is providing a fresh catalyst, renewing investor confidence in Korean chipmakers’ long-term prospects.

Samsung and SK Hynix’s advanced DRAM and high bandwidth memory (HBM) modules are particularly well-suited for powering AI data centers. High-speed, high-capacity memory is critical for reducing training times for large language models and generative AI, enabling faster inference across massive datasets, and supporting 24/7 real-time AI applications. Notably, SK Hynix has already captured an estimated 50% market share of NVIDIA’s preferred HBM chips, making it a natural fit for continued AI buildouts.

OpenAI’s Global Data Center Push

OpenAI’s Stargate, in partnership with Microsoft Azure and a suite of other investors, is just the latest in a series of AI infrastructure mega-projects announced in 2025. The company has outlined plans for subsequent phases of the build-out that could involve new data center facilities across the United States and international locations, putting further pressure on the global supply chain for advanced chips and power management solutions.

The project has attracted the involvement of major stakeholders, including real estate investment trusts, sovereign wealth funds, and technology conglomerates, highlighting how AI is shifting from a software-centric realization to a backbone of global industrial policy and competition.

Broader Impacts: Technology, Economy, and Policy

This partnership has far-reaching implications beyond technology. As AI permeates more sectors of the economy, advanced chips form the linchpin of national strategies for innovation, competitiveness, and security. The US government has backed the Stargate initiative as key to preserving American leadership in artificial intelligence, while South Korea’s Ministry of Trade welcomed the deal as validation of its push to make the nation a critical hub in the future data economy.

Meanwhile, the partnership could signal further consolidation, collaboration, and competition as countries and companies vie for supremacy in AI infrastructure. In turn, it is expected to drive additional investment into R&D, talent acquisition, and the development of even more power-efficient and capable semiconductor technologies.

Investor and Industry Outlook

“The scale of Stargate raises the bar for what is possible in the AI era,” said Ryu Min-seok, an analyst at KB Securities in Seoul. “This will likely spark a scramble among other hyperscalers and regional tech players to secure their own reliable supply of advanced chips, leading to further strategic deals in the near future.”

With capital markets rewarding those positioned at the intersection of AI and hardware, Samsung and SK Hynix are now not only cementing their status as global semiconductor leaders but also as foundational players in shaping the world’s AI-powered future.