OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald) OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is returning to South Korea this weekend for talks with Samsung Electronics, Kakao and Naver, as the ChatGPT leader looks to deepen partnerships with Korean technology companies in AI infrastructure, workplace adoption and consumer services.Altman is scheduled to arrive in Korea on Sunday afternoon and begin his main itinerary Monday, according to industry sources on Thursday.His first major stop will be Samsung Electronics’ Digital City campus in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where he will meet employees of the company’s Device eXperience division, which oversees Samsung’s consumer electronics and mobile device businesses, at a session titled “DX Insight Talk.”The session comes as Samsung has begun allowing employees to use external generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini Enterprise and Claude, as part of a broader push to bring AI into daily operations across the group.Altman is expected to address the impact of AI on workplace productivity and corporate work practices. He will also exchange views with Samsung employees on how generative AI could change the way large companies operate.The visit will also include meetings with Samsung Electronics executives, including co-CEOs Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon.Their talks are likely to cover follow-up discussions on OpenAI’s Stargate project and Samsung’s potential supply of advanced memory chips for large-scale AI data centers. The two sides may also discuss cooperation related to Samsung’s use of ChatGPT.A meeting with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong appears unlikely, as Lee is currently on a business trip to Europe. Altman is also unlikely to meet SK Group officials during the brief one-night, two-day visit, industry sources said.Altman will, however, visit Kakao’s headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday morning for talks with Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a.The meeting will build on the strategic partnership the two companies announced last year, with closer integration between ChatGPT and KakaoTalk, Korea’s dominant messaging app, likely to be a key topic.Kakao has been working to add ChatGPT-powered features to KakaoTalk, seeking to leverage the messenger’s conversational context to improve its AI functions.Altman is scheduled to visit Naver in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, later Monday.Naver, which has built its own cloud and data center infrastructure, is seen as a potential partner for OpenAI in cloud services, data center operations and AI infrastructure.The trip marks Altman’s first visit to Korea since October, when he held separate meetings with Samsung's Lee and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.During the visit, OpenAI signed separate agreements with Samsung and SK to cooperate on global AI infrastructure. The agreements centered on supplying high-performance, low-power memory chips for Stargate, OpenAI’s large-scale AI data center project.Stargate is a US-based AI infrastructure project led by OpenAI with Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank. The project involves up to $500 billion in planned investment over four years.OpenAI has estimated that Stargate could require high-performance DRAM equivalent to as many as 900,000 wafers per month.Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have agreed to expand production of cutting-edge memory chips and develop high-performance, high-capacity products needed to run OpenAI’s advanced AI models.Altman is due to leave Korea on Monday evening after completing his meetings with major Korean technology companies.