Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock dropped 1.5% after news emerged of a strategic partnership between OpenAI and semiconductor giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, raising concerns about intensifying competition in the memory chip market crucial for AI workloads.
The collaboration, formalized through a letter of intent, spans Samsung’s semiconductor, data center, shipbuilding, cloud services, and maritime technology divisions, aiming to accelerate the development of global AI data center infrastructure.
Samsung’s stronghold in the memory market is a key factor in the partnership, with Samsung and SK Hynix together controlling nearly 70% of global DRAM output and roughly 80% of the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market. HBM, which stacks chips vertically for greater efficiency in processing large datasets, has become essential for advanced AI applications like ChatGPT. The alliance is expected to reinforce Samsung’s position as a key supplier for OpenAI’s growing infrastructure requirements.
Jordan Klein, a TMT specialist at Mizuho, described the potential impact of the deal as “pretty large if fully realized” and called the OpenAI-Samsung HBM agreement “smart,” noting that AI training and inference demand adequate HBM regardless of the number of GPUs or custom ASICs used.
Although Micron shares fell following the announcement, Klein suggested the company could still secure a similar supply deal with OpenAI or another major AI data center operator in the future.
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