Samsung Invites OpenAI's Sam Altman to Brief Its Top Executives

Samsung invited OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to speak with its senior executives on Saturday, October 31, at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. About 50 presidents from affiliates in electronics, finance, biotech and other fields attended.

The session was titled "The Next Decade AI Will Change: Choices for Companies." Participants reviewed where AI technology is heading and how it can be used, then exchanged views on new markets and business opportunities. They also discussed how AI will affect corporate decision-making and organizational management, and what skills leaders will need in the new environment.

A partnership that spans the group

The meeting extends an existing relationship. Samsung Electronics and OpenAI signed a letter of intent last October to build global AI infrastructure, and Samsung Electronics has since pursued memory chip supply for OpenAI's Stargate project. Samsung SDS agreed to work with OpenAI on AI data centers and enterprise AI services, while Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries are jointly developing floating offshore data centers. In July, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco.

Executives go back to school

Before the talk, the presidents took hands-on training in generative AI, their second intensive course since the first in June. They used AI to organize scattered management documents into personal knowledge repositories, with the aim of building practical skills for using AI in decisions.

Samsung has pursued what it calls an "AI transformation" since June, bringing AI into everything from R&D to production, marketing and support. Training began with the top presidents and reached about 2,300 executives. The company plans to extend it to all employees by February 2027. Each affiliate has also set up a dedicated AI unit to shape a business-specific strategy and support data and model operations, and the group is broadening its use of external generative AI services.

Samsung says it will keep tracking each affiliate's progress and refine concrete tasks, aiming to establish an AI-driven management system across the group.