OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the San Francisco AI Summit, held at The Midway in San Francisco on Friday (local time), with President Lee Jae-myung in attendance. [Yonhap]
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the San Francisco AI Summit, held at The Midway in San Francisco on Friday (local time), with President Lee Jae-myung in attendance. [Yonhap]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told President Lee Jae-myung in a meeting that redistributing wealth in the AI era is better served by an equity-sharing model — where citizens share in corporate gains — than by simple cash transfers.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who also met with Lee, stressed the importance of building national AI capabilities, while Broadcom expressed its intent to expand cooperation with South Korea, praising the country's AI policy and its vision to become a global AI hub.

Altman conveyed the view to President Lee on Friday (local time), saying a profit-sharing arrangement is preferable to direct cash support in the AI age.

Cheong Wa Dae chief spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said that afternoon that Altman, during his meeting with Lee, "explained his view that an equity-based model — in which citizens share in corporate gains — may be more desirable than simple cash transfers in the AI era."

Lee had asked Altman for his thoughts on how wealth should be distributed in the AI era while outlining South Korea's plans to foster its AI industry, and Altman responded accordingly, Kang said.

Altman also praised South Korea's three mega-projects as "exemplary cases on a global scale" and expressed hope that South Korea could serve as a test bed for a next-generation AI device set to launch in the first quarter of next year, signaling his intent to expand cooperation, Kang said.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, in a separate meeting with Lee, stressed the importance of national AI capabilities. "AI can be imported, but a nation's intelligence cannot be outsourced," Huang said, according to Kang.

Kang also said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan "highly praised South Korea's AI policy and its vision to become a global AI hub" and forecast that demand for AI infrastructure would continue to expand through at least 2029.


th5@heraldcorp.com