Altman tells Samsung executives of short-term AI bubble and double-counted demand

According to a report from Korea's Financial News, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met privately with roughly 50 Samsung division-level executives during a visit to South Korea late last month. Altman, who has not previously commented on infrastructure demand in such settings, told the group that AI memory and data center demand could fluctuate in the near term and that some demand in the market is being double-counted.

Asked whether AI and memory demand might saturate or slow over the next five to ten years, Altman replied that there will be ups and downs in the short term. He pointed to the ongoing debate over so-called emerging cloud providers—companies that rent out AI compute infrastructure such as GPUs—and said demand is being counted more than once. He went on to say that only OpenAI and Anthropic can drive large-scale demand growth, and warned that supply shocks and periods of instability could follow. The remarks carry direct implications for memory suppliers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both of which have previously taken part in initiatives led by OpenAI.

The meeting also centered on a proposed partnership. Altman offered to work with Samsung on developing next-generation AI devices aimed at a post-smartphone era. Samsung has not publicly commented on the meeting or on any potential collaboration. No timeline, scope, or delivery plan for such a partnership has been disclosed, and the two sides appear to still be in early discussions.