SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won recently visited OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco for a private meeting with CEO Sam Altman, according to reports from South Korean outlets Maeil Business Newspaper and Yonhap News Agency. The visit marks the third known encounter between the two executives, following previous meetings in Seoul in February 2025 and San Francisco in June 2024.
Sources familiar with the matter said the latest discussions focused on investment in AI infrastructure, as well as strengthening technology partnerships. During the meeting, Chey also extended a formal invitation for Altman to attend the upcoming APEC CEO Summit, scheduled to take place in Gyeongju, South Korea, in October 2025.
SK Hynix CEO highlights strategic importance of HBM
Notably, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung also participated in the visit, signaling just how central high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has become in the race to power artificial intelligence (AI). The company is a leading supplier of HBM chips used in Nvidia's GPUs—critical hardware that OpenAI depends on to train its most advanced AI models.
As one of the world's largest GPU users, OpenAI is placing greater reliance on cutting-edge memory technologies to meet the soaring demands of large language models. Industry experts view the high-level visit as a strategic push by SK Group to solidify its role in the expanding global AI supply chain. By reinforcing ties with key players like OpenAI, SK is positioning itself as a vital contributor to next-generation AI infrastructure.
In addition to its use of Nvidia hardware, OpenAI is also working with Broadcom to develop its own custom AI chips. These ASICs are also expected to require high-performance memory, potentially opening the door for further cooperation with SK Hynix.
SK aims to expand role in global AI ecosystem and data center buildout
The joint appearance by Chey and Kwak highlights SK Group's intent to deepen ties with OpenAI and reinforce its technological edge in HBM, a component critical to next-generation AI compute infrastructure. It also signals SK's ambition to expand its footprint in the global AI ecosystem, from chip-level innovation to large-scale data center deployment.
OpenAI is advancing its international growth by planning the construction of extensive AI data centers in the US, Japan, and the Middle East. Analysts note that this expansion complements SK Group's recent partnership with Amazon Web Services to establish an AI data center in Ulsan, South Korea, potentially creating opportunities for further collaboration between the two sides
SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won (L) poses with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Credit: Chairman Chey's Instagram account
Article edited by Jack Wu
