The large-scale data center project Stargate, which OpenAI is developing together with partners, could consume up to 40% of the world’s DRAM production, Reuters reports, citing industry sources.
The large-scale data center project Stargate, which OpenAI is developing together with partners, could consume up to 40% of the world’s DRAM production, Reuters reports, citing industry sources.
Samsung and SK hynix have reached preliminary agreements to supply memory for Stargate. An important nuance: we are not talking about ready-made RAM modules or HBM stacks, but about DRAM wafers (undiced wafers) — a semi-finished product from which chips are subsequently made.
According to Bloomberg, the expected supply volume could reach up to 900,000 DRAM wafers per month. This is an unprecedented volume, which forms an estimate of 40% of global DRAM production.
It is not yet clear who exactly will be involved in cutting wafers and assembling finished chips, HBM stacks, and memory modules.
To put the scale into perspective: global factories will be able to produce about 10 million 300-mm wafers per month in 2025. The share of DRAM in this volume is about 2.25 million wafers. So, Stargate potentially «takes» almost half of all DRAM production. This applies to both mass memory (DDR5, LPDDR) and HBM, which is used in AI processors.
Stargate is a global project to build giant AI data centers, overseen by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. These centers will house hundreds of thousands of servers with state-of-the-art GPUs (including Nvidia’s Blackwell generation), cooling, and power systems.
Due to their enormous power consumption, Stargate data centers may even require separate power plants. That is why OpenAI executives, including Sam Altman, are actively traveling the world, concluding strategic contracts, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition to supplying DRAM wafers, Samsung is also considering other formats of cooperation with OpenAI:
Samsung SDS will work on the architecture and operation of Stargate data centers in South Korea, and will also advise businesses on integrating OpenAI models;
the company will become a reseller of OpenAI services in Korea and will help implement ChatGPT Enterprise;
Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries, together with OpenAI, are exploring the idea of floating data centers that could reduce cooling costs and CO₂ emissions.
This level of demand from AI projects is already affecting the memory market: DRAM is becoming more expensive, and manufacturers are increasingly actively reorienting capacity from the mass market to the needs of data centers.
In fact, Stargate is becoming one of the key factors shaping a new reality for the entire memory industry — from servers to regular PCs.
Previously, dev.ua talked about the trend of increasing RAM prices and the reasons that contribute to this.
