OpenAI fuels market Rally as Korean chip exports surge to record levels

The market value of global chipmakers surged to over $200 billion as investors showed interest in artificial intelligence. OpenAI deepened its alliances with Samsung and SK to expand Korea’s AI infrastructure under the Stargate program.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that Worldwide chip sales increased 3.6% month-to-month. The report revealed that an estimated $62.1 billion of global semiconductor sales were recorded worldwide in July 2025, representing a 20.6% increase over the $51.5 billion sold in July 2024 and a 3.6% rise over the $59.9 billion sold in June 2025. John Neufer, SIA president and CEO, stated that global semiconductor sales remained robust, surpassing the outcome in June and outpacing those of July last year.

The SIA report elaborated that regionally, sales in July were down in Japan (-6.3%) but up in the Americas (29.3%), other (35.6%), China (10.4%), and Europe (5.7%). The Americas (8.6%) and the other regions (4.9%) experienced month-to-month sales growth in May, while the European region (0.0%) remained stable. In contrast, China (-1.3%) and Japan (-0.2%) saw declines.

OpenAI fuels market Rally as Korean chip exports surge to record levels

On October 2, OpenAI recorded a US$500 billion (RM2.1 trillion) valuation in an employee share sale under its contract with a consortium of South Korean chipmakers.

OpenAI deal pushed the KOSPI (KRX) Index to a record high of 2.70%, and Korean chip firms are among the most profitable today. NVIDIA Corp. looked set to power with a 1.35% increase today, while Samsung Electronics Co. saw a 3.49% increase in share price, and SK Hynix Inc. saw a 9.86% increase. NVIDIA sales jumped 56% to $46.74 billion in the three months that ended in July. Profit reached more than 59%  to  $26.42 billion, 

Nvidia’s results have been highly anticipated since the publication of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022, which sparked an AI boom.

According to the Tradedata report, South Korea exported a record $16.6 billion worth of semiconductors in September, driven by demand for high-value memory such as HBM chips used in AI servers. 

OpenAI expands Stargate: Samsung and SK drive AI data center in Korea

OpenAI, Samsung, and SK also announced new strategic alliances as part of OpenAI’s Stargate program, which aims to expand the infrastructure essential to AI research in Korea and globally. SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and President Lee Jae-myung met at the Presidential Office in Seoul before the announcement.

According to the OpenAI announcement, to support OpenAI’s sophisticated AI models, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix intend to increase the manufacture of advanced memory chips, aiming for 900,000 DRAM wafer starts per month, with faster capacity deployment.

The partnership also includes an agreement with Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Samsung SDS to evaluate prospects for additional data centre capacity in Korea, as well as a separate cooperation with SK Telecom to investigate the construction of an AI data centre in the country.

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