Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom holds a pre-trip briefing for reporters at the Chunchugwan press center at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday ahead of President Lee Jae Myung's tour of the United States and South America. [Yonhap]
Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom holds a pre-trip briefing for reporters at the Chunchugwan press center at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday ahead of President Lee Jae Myung's tour of the United States and South America. [Yonhap]

Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom has signaled major outcomes from President Lee Jae Myung's AI diplomacy, saying long-term contracts between global Big Tech firms and Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Naver — deals that have been in the works — are expected to be announced all at once during the trip.

Kim made the remarks at a press briefing for foreign correspondents, citing President Lee's upcoming visit to San Francisco and the government's "three mega-projects." He said the figures companies announce during the trip would allow people to understand the context behind the 4,700 trillion won ($3.2 trillion) figure. "When you see the numbers the companies announce this time, you'll be able to say, 'So this is real,' and understand what context those numbers came from," he said.

President Lee departed Thursday on an 11-day, seven-night overseas tour, arriving in San Francisco as his first stop, where he is scheduled to meet with the CEOs of leading global technology companies. He plans to hold successive meetings with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and Hock Tan, president and CEO of Broadcom. The meetings are intended to underscore South Korea's commitment to sweeping AI investment and global cooperation, and to secure concrete outcomes — including investment and partnership agreements — from companies at the core of the global AI supply chain.

"A lot of very large numbers, very meaningful numbers, seem to be coming," Kim said. "I cannot say when they will be publicly announced, but good contracts are ripening, and MOUs and similar agreements could be signed in front of President Lee. It looks like such events will unfold one after another."

President Lee also plans to host an AI summit in San Francisco to expand and give concrete shape to the vision of South Korea's "three mega-projects for a great leap forward" on a global scale. Kim described the format: "The CEOs of four US Big Tech companies, along with four Korean executives — from Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin — will take the stage with the president for a panel discussion." He called it "quite a meaningful event" to have major global players gathered in a semicircle for roughly an hour of dialogue.

Investment plans between US and Korean companies are also expected to be announced at the event. "Beyond long-term contracts, strategic investment agreements are also likely to be announced," Kim said. "I think the partnership between US Big Tech firms and Korea's top two memory chip companies is very significant. It is a further consolidation of the Korea-US technology and economic partnership."

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix had previously announced semiconductor investment plans worth 4,700 trillion won through the three mega-projects initiative. Kim said that when the three mega-projects were first unveiled, many felt the figure was too large, but added, "Frankly, I think it could be even bigger." He suggested the scale of investments to be announced in San Francisco could exceed 4,700 trillion won, saying the new announcements would help people understand what that figure actually represents.

Asked about the form the long-term contracts between Korean and US companies would take, Kim said, "New long-term contracts for memory chips will be coming soon," and added that "very specific investment agreements with global Big Tech on the AI data center side are also coming."

"Last time, we announced plans to build AI data centers in Korea by 2035," Kim said. "This time, there will be confirmed agreements with companies that want to use or invest in those data centers. Once that is in place, the AI data center push will take concrete shape within a few months — all that remains is securing the sites."

Kim reiterated the key deliverables: "To summarize again — on the large-scale AI data center front, confirmed demand from global companies will be announced, and on the memory side, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will each announce new long-term contracts for specific volumes of specific semiconductors."

Meanwhile, on the scale of the Future Response Fund — expected to invest across four areas including youth, the future, regional development and education — Kim said he expected it to be "quite large," though the exact amount for next year remains unclear. "A very meaningful sum will be gathered, and it must be put to good use," he said. Asked whether the fund would reach several trillion won, Kim replied, "It will easily surpass that."


moone@heraldcorp.com