Lee Jae-yong, Masayoshi Son, and Sam Altman are scheduled to have a trilateral meeting on artificial intelligence (AI) in Seoul today. According to the business and IT sectors, Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank Group, will meet with Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at Samsung Electronics’ Seocho office to discuss AI collaboration. Son is confirmed to have arrived at Gimpo Airport this morning for this meeting.
This sudden meeting is significant as Chairman Son joins the meeting with CEO Altman and Chairman Lee, as well as Samsung Electronics’ DS division executives. OpenAI and SoftBank are closely aligning on the $500 billion AI infrastructure project ‘Stargate’ amidst China’s Deepfake advancements and are expected to discuss collaboration with Samsung Electronics, which holds key technologies in semiconductors and hardware.
Following Chairman Lee’s acquittal in an appellate court ruling the previous day, there is a push toward a ‘Korea-U.S.-Japan AI alliance,’ driven by Chairman Son’s prompt visit to Korea and his meeting with Altman to further global AI cooperation.
This is not the first time Chairman Son has sought collaboration with Samsung; he previously visited Korea to meet with Chairman Lee when considering the sale of ARM in 2022. In the Stargate project, OpenAI and SoftBank each handle technology and investment, while ARM, a semiconductor design asset owned by SoftBank, is involved, along with Nvidia acting as a technology partner. However, collaboration with a semiconductor manufacturer is essential for the massive investment and experience required, making Samsung Electronics a crucial component of the semiconductor supply chain and a potential major investor in AI.
On the 3rd, Chairman Son and CEO Altman surprised the industry by announcing this collaboration in Japan, where they plan to establish a joint venture to develop and sell the enterprise-oriented generative AI ‘Crystal Intelligence’. In the upcoming meeting on the 4th, discussions are expected to include Samsung’s role as a chip manufacturer, OpenAI’s new consumer AI devices, and joint efforts to penetrate the Korean AI market, among other business collaboration plans.