President Lee Jae-myung, visiting San Francisco, attended the "San Francisco AI Summit" held locally on the 24th and delivered the "San Francisco AI Declaration," presenting Korea's new vision for the AI era.
Attendees included Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung, and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin. From global Big Tech firms, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan also took part.
President Lee first said, "The Republic of Korea will leap forward as an irreplaceable core nation in the global AI supply chain," adding, "Based on our world-class memory chip competitiveness and production capacity, we will become a trusted AI chip production base and supply chain partner." He stressed realizing the AI demand underpinning the government's three mega projects and becoming a responsible AI-leading nation.
He said Korea would also take a leading role as a "global hub" that narrows the gap between developed and developing nations. "By building horizontal cooperation networks with diverse countries, we will create new AI markets and enable citizens of more nations to participate in the opportunities of AI innovation," Lee said. "We will become a responsible partner that grows together by sharing the opportunities and benefits of AI with the entire world, not just Korea's own growth." He also made clear that the benefits of AI should not remain confined to a specific class.
President Lee added, "Just as the Golden Gate Bridge, the symbol of San Francisco, connects the city and the world, I ask all of you leading the global AI industry to become bridges of cooperation that connect the world."
[Full Text] President Lee Jae-myung's San Francisco AI Declaration
Distinguished global entrepreneurs and innovators. Today, here in San Francisco, the heart of global innovation, I wish to share with the world the vision of the new AI era that the Republic of Korea dreams of.
Here, where we can first encounter the future we once imagined, small ideas became innovations that changed the world, and those innovations have led not only to new industries but to a transformation of human civilization.
San Francisco and the Republic of Korea share many similarities. Just as San Francisco rose from the ruins of the 1906 earthquake with indomitable will and relentless challenge to become a center of the world's technological innovation, our Republic of Korea, once one of the world's poorest nations after the Korean War, built itself into an IT powerhouse through the will and effort of all its people, and has now established itself as a core nation of the world leading the global AI ecosystem.
Samsung Electronics entered the semiconductor industry late but grew into a company leading the world's memory chip market, and SK hynix, which reached the top of the world in HBM by breaking through fierce technological competition, was recently successfully listed on Nasdaq.
Furthermore, last June, an AI project investment worth approximately 4,700 trillion won was announced, one that will lead a new leap forward for Korea's economy and the world's AI industry. And here, at this very place today, Korea's and the world's leading companies, whose combined corporate value exceeds 20,000 trillion won, wish to announce to the entire world a large-scale AI investment initiative they have long prepared together.
I sincerely express my gratitude to the entrepreneurs of both nations who have joined the Republic of Korea in this bold challenge. The AI revolution is not a story of the future, but the present that we are all creating together. AI can no longer be explained by a single technology or industry alone.
Beyond the competition to develop superior software algorithms, this has become an era in which competitiveness is determined by how much computing resources one secures, how stably one supplies energy, how one connects abundant data, and how quickly one applies these to industry and daily life.
Even the world's best AI model cannot operate without a stable supply of advanced semiconductors, and no matter how outstanding a semiconductor is, it can create new value only when there is the enormous demand called AI. The AI era is an era in which technology and production capacity, data and energy, markets and talent are connected into one enormous supply chain. How stably we build this supply chain is the most important task we must now solve together.
At the same time, we stand before several questions. How can we not merely make AI smarter, but apply it quickly throughout industry and daily life to create new markets? How can we build not an AI for certain nations only, but an enormous global AI market in which all nations participate?
And how can AI development be achieved on the foundation of human-centered values, with its benefits distributed evenly to all? This is not a problem that can be solved through fierce competition alone. It is a task of our times that must be solved together through global cooperation that connects each other's strengths while leading technology.
Today, at this place, I wish to present the vision of the AI future that the Republic of Korea dreams of, and to propose global cooperation to realize it together.
First, the Republic of Korea will leap forward as an irreplaceable core nation in the global AI supply chain. Based on our world-class memory chip competitiveness and production capacity, we will become a trusted AI chip production base and supply chain partner. We will ensure that companies around the world can stably build AI infrastructure and continue technological innovation under any circumstances.
To this end, the Republic of Korea announced a large-scale investment plan last June and is transitioning to a multipolar production base system in which the capital region and provinces together take responsibility for the world's semiconductor supply. This is a national-level supply chain safeguard that can sustain semiconductor production even amid any crisis, and a responsible investment by Korea to prevent global semiconductor shortages.
Beyond semiconductors, we will build a world-class AI hub that stably supplies the core infrastructure the global AI ecosystem needs, by connecting the data centers that will become AI's brain with physical AI that implements AI in reality. Based on Korea's robust supply chain, we will firmly support you so that you can take on challenges more boldly and the global AI revolution can be successfully advanced.
Second, beyond supply, the Republic of Korea will become the nation that uses AI most quickly and effectively, creating a new market in which the world grows together. In the AI era, the Republic of Korea has special strengths. We possess world-class manufacturing competitiveness, digital infrastructure, and a dynamic AI ecosystem, and above all, we have companies and citizens who accept new technologies faster than anyone and apply them first to industry and daily life. The Republic of Korea will become a nation that spreads AI most quickly across industrial sites, public services, and the entire daily life of its people, creating new demand and markets.
We will become a global AI testbed and production platform where artificial intelligence actually operates throughout manufacturing plants, cities, and logistics sites, beyond laboratories and digital spaces. On the AI production platform Korea has built, AI will be developed and verified more quickly and applied broadly to industrial sites. The data accumulated in that process will enhance AI's performance and reliability, and more advanced AI will in turn create a virtuous cycle that improves industrial productivity and the lives of the people.
Through this virtuous cycle structure, the Republic of Korea will present a new global innovation model in which AI production and utilization grow together. From the end of this year, we will begin full-scale promotion of the "AI for All" project, joined by 50 million citizens.
By actively using AI throughout not only citizens' daily lives but also public services including administration, welfare, and education, we will build the world's most dynamic AI market. I am confident that this will become not merely Korea's own growth, but a new demand base that leads the growth of the entire global AI ecosystem. A stage of innovation and investment where your technologies and ideas can be realized most quickly
