On Thursday, shares of South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix soared after the two companies announced a collaboration with AI leader OpenAI the previous day to supply chips for the latter's "Stargate" project. Samsung's stock rose over 4%, reaching its highest level since January 2021, while SK Hynix's shares surged more than 9%, hitting a record high since 2000. South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index climbed over 3% at one point, setting a new all-time high.

OpenAI stated in a release that the collaboration would "focus on increasing the supply of advanced memory chips essential for next-generation AI and expanding data center capacity in South Korea."

The ChatGPT maker mentioned that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plan to scale up production of advanced memory chips, which are critical for the operation of its AI models.

The news came as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and top executives from Samsung and SK Hynix in Seoul.

OpenAI also signed a series of agreements with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT, telecom operator SK Telecom, and Samsung subsidiaries to explore the development of next-generation AI data centers in South Korea.

Earlier this month, SK Hynix announced it was ready to mass-produce its next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, solidifying its leading position in the AI value chain. HBM is a type of memory chip used for AI computing.

SK Hynix has been a key chip supplier for AI giant NVIDIA, while rival Samsung has reportedly been working to get its HBM4 chips certified by NVIDIA.

Traditionally, Samsung has been the leader in the memory market, but its position is being challenged by SK Hynix, which has taken a lead in the HBM sector. Counterpoint Research noted in a July report that SK Hynix had caught up with Samsung in memory revenue in the second quarter, with the two now competing for the top spot in the global memory market.