President Lee Jae-myung poses for a photo with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ahead of their meeting in San Francisco on Friday (local time). [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae-myung poses for a photo with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ahead of their meeting in San Francisco on Friday (local time). [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae-myung met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other major tech executives in San Francisco on Friday (local time) to discuss AI cooperation, as part of his ongoing visit to the United States.

Speaking with Huang, Lee said his government has launched three mega-projects and is preparing for a new AI-centered society, adding that he hopes Huang "will continue to play a major role" in that effort.

Lee struck a warm tone, telling Huang that "a leather jacket always suits you well," and recalled missing last year's "chimaek" — fried chicken and beer — gathering at Kkanbuchicken, where Huang had met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung. "I wished I could have joined," Lee said.

In response, Huang announced that SK Group and Nvidia would reveal a business partnership Friday (local time) worth $500 billion.

Huang added that Nvidia would also pursue chip design and memory chip design partnerships with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.

He further said Nvidia would make a large-scale investment in Naver, describing the company as one of Korea's leading cloud providers. The partnership would support Naver's expansion not only in Korea but globally, he said.

Huang also said Nvidia would work with Hyundai Motor Group to jointly develop autonomous Genesis vehicles.

Lee echoed the enthusiasm on Hyundai Motor cooperation, noting that Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest in robotics projects in the Saemangeum area of North Jeolla Province. "Young Koreans and residents of North Jeolla Province have enormous expectations," he said.

Huang added that Nvidia is co-developing advanced power systems for use in factories and homes with LG Group.

President Lee Jae-myung poses for a photo with Broadcom CEO Hock Tan ahead of their meeting in San Francisco on Friday (local time). [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae-myung poses for a photo with Broadcom CEO Hock Tan ahead of their meeting in San Francisco on Friday (local time). [Yonhap]

Lee also held separate meetings with Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

In his meeting with Amodei, Lee said South Korea plans to significantly expand AI investment and expressed hope that Anthropic would show "special attention, investment and contribution" to the country.

Amodei said he was grateful that the South Korean government has made AI its top priority and that there would be many areas for cooperation.

He said Anthropic places the highest priority on collaboration with other companies and expressed strong interest in working with Korean firms, noting that Korean memory chip manufacturers have made substantial investments in Anthropic. "In that sense, we plan to cooperate in various areas including data centers," he said.

Amodei added that Anthropic has signed an MOU with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT covering AI security and the cybersecurity industry. "Working with Korea is truly exciting," he said.

With Hock Tan, Lee said building an AI industrial ecosystem today requires an enormous national role and a level of corporate collaboration "completely different from the past," and described South Korea's efforts to invest heavily in AI and work with companies to prepare for a new era.

Lee also urged Broadcom to play a significant role in building South Korea's AI ecosystem, asking the company to help Korea become the world's leading AI nation.

Hock Tan said he was impressed that South Korea, despite being a large-conglomerate-driven society, still sees small and medium-sized enterprises and startups actively launching businesses and energizing the industry. He also expressed interest in South Korea's "sovereign AI" initiative.


sang@heraldcorp.com