Financial News, in an exclusive published on November 11, 2026, at 17:30 KST, reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned Samsung executives that demand for AI memory could fluctuate in the short term. The outlet, in a report by Kim Hak-jae, Park Ji-yeon and Lim Su-bin, also reported that there had been cases of demand being double-counted in the market in connection with growth in demand for memory semiconductors and data centers. In the long term, Financial News reported, he forecast that AI use would surge, leading to shortages of chips and data centers. The quotes, according to Financial News, come from Q&A materials from the meeting that the newspaper obtained exclusively on November 11, 2026. The outlet's English page says the article was translated by GripLabs Mingo AI, so the quotes below are that English text, not a verified transcript of Altman's words. A second English version of the story, posted at 18:27 KST the same day, words some quotes differently, for example "There are ups and downs in the short term."
The meeting Samsung and Yonhap confirmed
The meeting was held on October 31, 2026, at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Samsung Newsroom and Yonhap reported. Samsung Newsroom, in a release dated October 31, 2026, said Samsung invited Altman to meet presidents of major affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, and that about 50 presidents from affiliates in electronics, finance, biotech and other sectors attended. Yonhap, in a report by Kang Yoon-seung at 17:34 KST on October 31, 2026, cited Samsung as saying top executives from key Samsung affiliates met Altman that Saturday and discussed future strategies for AI transformation. Yonhap, citing Samsung officials, said the session took place at a Samsung human resources center in Yongin, south of Seoul, as part of a series of leadership seminars, and that around 50 Samsung executives from its tech, finance and bio units, including Samsung Electronics, attended.
Samsung Newsroom said the session was held under a theme about the next 10 years that AI will change and the enterprise's choice. It said Samsung executives and Altman reviewed the direction of AI technology development and possible uses, exchanged views on markets and business opportunities that could emerge, and discussed the impact AI could have on corporate decision-making and organizational operations, as well as the capabilities executives will need. Samsung said the meeting was part of executive training to promote company-wide AI transformation, aimed at improving executives' understanding of AI and exploring future management strategies.
Those Samsung Newsroom and Yonhap accounts confirm only that the meeting happened and what Samsung said the session was about. They do not confirm the quotes Financial News later published.
What Altman reportedly said about short-term demand
Financial News, citing the Q&A materials, said Altman was asked whether demand for AI, memory and data centers could reach saturation or slow over the next 5 to 10 years. According to Financial News, he answered, "There are short-term fluctuations".
Financial News reported that Altman referred to the debate in 2026 over a bubble among emerging cloud companies known as "neoclouds", which rent out infrastructure specialized for AI computing, such as GPUs. According to Financial News, he said, "There has been double-counting of demand," adding, "Only two companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, are actually driving major demand growth, so there could be a supply shock and an unsettled period."
OpenAI's recent fundraising is covered separately in a report on a first close of about $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation. Anthropic, the other company Financial News quotes Altman as naming, has set a $70 to $78 price range for its U.S. IPO.
What he reportedly said about long-term demand
According to Financial News, Altman said, "In the long term, AI demand will grow enormously". Financial News also wrote that he forecast that use of tokens, the units of information processed by AI models, would increase substantially if AI writes customized software in real time and is applied to robots, spacecraft and scientific research.
According to Financial News, he said, "Everyone will increasingly want intelligence that works for them," and added, "At the start of 2020, the top token user consumed about 100,000 tokens a month, but early this year the heaviest user consumed 100 billion tokens a month. The amount of compute one person can consume is astonishing." The phrase "early this year" is in the quotation as Financial News printed it, from the October 31, 2026 meeting.
Reported bottlenecks, investment and profits
Asked what the biggest bottlenecks to AI expansion were, Financial News reported that Altman cited "the supply chain," "financing," "AI safety and social acceptance," and "corporate transformation". According to Financial News, he stressed, "The biggest constraints over the next few years are the chip supply chain and data center infrastructure," adding, "More investment in the supply chain is needed." The outlet also wrote that he identified the chip supply chain and data center infrastructure as the biggest constraints on AI expansion in the coming years.
Financial News reported that Altman said investments in computing efficiency, including in internally designed chips, were beginning to pay off, and emphasized that the company was achieving high operational efficiency based on long-term contracts.
Asked by Samsung executives whether continued large-scale investment was putting pressure on profits, Financial News reported that Altman said, "That's the point," adding, "If a company has vertically integrated infrastructure that costs less than any other company's and sells tokens at scale on low margins, it can get ahead of the competition."
According to Financial News, Altman said, "The market is so large that the rules of a commodity business do not apply," and "Simply meeting the world's demand for tokens would be enough to build a great industry."
What Samsung says about its OpenAI work
Samsung Newsroom said Samsung Electronics and OpenAI signed a letter of intent in October 2025 to cooperate on building global AI infrastructure and have been pursuing supply of memory semiconductors needed for OpenAI's Stargate project. Samsung said Samsung SDS agreed to cooperate on AI data centers and enterprise AI services, and that Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries agreed to jointly develop floating data centers. In July 2026, Samsung Newsroom said, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters.
Samsung's own comments on its memory business appear separately in a report on its third-quarter 2026 results.
