The Zhitong Finance App learned that during South Korea's presidential office policy director Kim Yong-beom said that during South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung's visit to Silicon Valley, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will sign major agreements involving “huge” funds with major US technology companies. These agreements may include new long-term memory chip supply agreements, strategic cooperative investment partnerships, and memorandums of understanding. However, he did not disclose the exact amount of the deal in question.
Kim Yong-beom said that the presidential visit acted as a “catalyst” and helped end protracted negotiations between South Korean companies and their American peers.
Lee Jae-ming will begin this overseas trip in San Francisco on Friday. He will attend an artificial intelligence summit and hold talks with Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun, OpenAI founder Sam Ultrman, AnthroPic co-founder Dario Amoudi, and Broadcom CEO Chen Fuyang, respectively.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-hyeong, SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Jung Ee-seon, and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin will also attend the Artificial Intelligence Summit.
Last month, the South Korean government announced an investment plan with a total scale of not less than 880 billion US dollars. Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and Naver all participated in it. The plan aims to expand chip production, build artificial intelligence data centers, and consolidate Korea's leading position in semiconductor and physical artificial intelligence.
Kim Yong-beom said that this visit is expected to transform many of the intended investments announced last month into physical projects. Of the initial 8-gigawatt AI data center construction capacity planned by the Korean government, more than half of the projects are expected to be finalized during this visit. Unlike the initial investment intention announced earlier, the new project finalized this time will clarify partner customers, landing site selection, and local Korean engineering partners.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urged Samsung and SK Hynix to expand the scale of memory chip production in the US. Kim Yong-beom said that it is natural for the US Secretary of Commerce to encourage companies to expand the scale of domestic production, but Washington has not officially requested these companies to increase semiconductor investment in the US.
Kim Yong-bum also said that the core driving force for the latest round of production expansion plans in South Korea comes from strong demand from US technology companies, which account for 80% to 90% of basic orders.
South Korea's presidential office revealed that Lee Jae-myung will deliver a speech at the Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Summit explaining South Korea's vision of becoming a reliable supplier of artificial intelligence infrastructure and promoting the widespread application of artificial intelligence in various fields of the economy.