Lee Jae-yong attends Sun Valley Conference with Samsung foundry chief, eyes meetings with Apple, Amazon, OpenAI

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (second from left) attends the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Wednesday (local time). To his right is Wendi Deng, ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. To his left is Han Jin-man, head of Samsung Electronics' foundry division. [Getty Images]

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has kicked off a packed schedule of back-to-back meetings with top executives from the AI, semiconductor, telecommunications and automotive industries at the Sun Valley Conference, the annual gathering of global business heavyweights.

Lee made the trip alongside Han Jin-man, the Samsung Electronics president who oversees the company's foundry business. With the foundry market entering a new phase — squeezed between TSMC's production limits and Intel's competitive push — the two are expected to focus on securing additional orders from major tech customers and expanding partnerships to advance Samsung's AI business.

According to industry sources and foreign media, Lee arrived at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time) and immediately began his conference schedule.

Han Jin-man, president and head of Samsung Electronics' foundry division, attends the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time). [Getty Images]

Hosted every July by US investment bank Allen & Company, the Sun Valley Conference draws some 300 industry titans and government officials from technology, automotive, telecommunications, media, finance, real estate and retail — earning it a reputation as a "billionaires' social gathering."

Lee has described the conference as "the busiest business trip of the year," reflecting the importance he places on it. Attending for the second consecutive year, he was spotted Wednesday in conversation with Wendi Deng, ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, on the conference grounds.

Lee was dressed casually in a short-sleeved polo shirt and gray New Balance sneakers, with a jacket tied around his waist. Han was seen beside him.

Apple CEO Tim Cook (left), Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue (center) and incoming CEO John Ternus, who officially takes the role on Sept. 1, attend the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Wednesday (local time). [Getty Images]

This year's Sun Valley Conference has drawn a broad array of global executives who work with Samsung Electronics across semiconductors, televisions, mobile devices and content. With AI company CEOs also attending in force, observers expect Lee's business meetings on the ground to move at a rapid pace.

Attention is particularly focused on a potential meeting with Apple's leadership. The company sent a strong delegation — CEO Tim Cook, incoming CEO John Ternus, who officially takes the role on Sept. 1, and Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue all attended.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy (right) attends the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time). [Getty Images]

Samsung's foundry division, which won an order from Apple last August to produce image sensor chips for the iPhone, is now aiming to re-enter the supply chain for the iPhone's application processor — the chip that serves as the device's brain. TSMC currently holds that contract.

As a global surge in AI chip orders has strained TSMC's production capacity, Apple has been looking to Samsung Electronics as an alternative. Bloomberg reported June 4 (local time) that Apple executives had held discussions with Samsung Electronics about outsourcing production of its main processor, bringing the prospect of a Samsung order into the open.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time). [Getty Images]

Should an iPhone processor contract materialize, Samsung's foundry division would capture a portion of the volume TSMC has held exclusively, giving fresh momentum to its efforts to close the gap with its rival.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, both of whom maintain regular contact with Lee, were also spotted at the Sun Valley Resort. Amazon and OpenAI are each developing in-house AI chips to compete with Nvidia, already source HBM from Samsung Electronics, and are potential customers for Samsung's foundry business as well.

Arm CEO Rene Haas arrives at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time), waving to onlookers. [Getty Images]

Rene Haas, CEO of Arm — the global semiconductor intellectual property company whose largest shareholder is SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son — was also confirmed to be at the conference, raising expectations of a reunion with Lee. Samsung Electronics has built a partnership with Arm spanning more than a decade, optimizing its advanced foundry processes around Arm's chip designs. In February last year, Haas joined Lee, Son and Altman for a three-way meeting at Samsung Electronics' Seocho headquarters, where the group held in-depth discussions on AI strategy.

GM Chair Mary Barra attends the Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on Tuesday (local time). [Getty Images]

Also converging on Sun Valley were GM Chair Mary Barra, whose company partners with Samsung SDI on automotive batteries; Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler; and Meta Vice Chair Dina Powell McCormick — a lineup that points to a full slate of business meetings for Lee throughout the conference.

joze@heraldcorp.com