OpenAI is deepening its partnership with Samsung. The collaboration involves joint research and production of OpenAI’s proprietary chips, as well as a large-scale rollout of ChatGPT within Samsung. The number of business users of ChatGPT in South Korea grew 28-fold in one year.
Harrison Kim, General Manager of OpenAI Korea, explains the move. “One of the areas where we have made the most progress and gained the most recognition with Samsung Electronics is our joint production and research on the next-generation chips we are developing,” says Kim.
Samsung itself is keeping its cards close to its chest. The company states that it cannot confirm any information about customers.
In addition, Kim says Samsung is one of the largest ChatGPT implementers worldwide. Employees in Korea and abroad use the chatbot for R&D, marketing, and sales. In June, Samsung authorized employees of the Device eXperience division, responsible for smartphones, TVs, and home appliances, to use ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude internally.
Kim expects demand for memory chips to keep growing, as faster, more complex computing requires more advanced chips. Collaboration with South Korean suppliers is therefore a priority for the local office.
Enterprise adoption in South Korea
Figures on enterprise usage are striking. By the end of August, the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users at South Korean companies and institutions was approximately 28 times higher than a year earlier. According to OpenAI, companies are deploying AI more broadly, moving from individual tasks to company-wide processes: legal affairs, sales, finance, marketing, and operations. The company does not disclose absolute user numbers.
According to OpenAI, South Korea had the most paying ChatGPT subscribers outside the United States at the end of last year. The company expects further growth after launching GPT-6 Astra on September 4. According to OpenAI, this model performs better in computing, professional work, science, coding, and cybersecurity.
Tip: GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI’s answer to Fable, is now rolling out