President Lee Jae-myung held a series of meetings with executives from global big tech companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Broadcom in San Francisco on the 24th, emphasizing Korea's efforts to attract investment and foster synergy between companies. Lee appeared to personally launch an AI alliance in the United States aimed at elevating cooperation with global big tech firms, in order to realize the artificial intelligence (AI) demand that underpins the government's three mega-projects.
Meeting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at a hotel in San Francisco that day, Lee stressed, "We are launching the three mega-projects and preparing a new society and a new nation centered on artificial intelligence (AI)." Huang immediately responded by announcing a business partnership with SK Group worth 500 billion dollars (about 730 trillion won). "I believe the 'AI-native nation' vision that the President announced has given energy to the Republic of Korea," Huang said. "From fried chicken to samgyeopsal, the energy I was able to feel in the Republic of Korea was truly astonishing."
Jensen Huang: "Nvidia AI Researchers to Relocate to Korea"
Huang went on to introduce a series of investment and collaboration possibilities with Korean companies. "SK hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Nvidia are pursuing a partnership on chip design and memory design. We are also making a large-scale investment in Naver," Huang said. He added, "Naver is Korea's leading cloud company, and through the partnership we will support expansion not only in Korea but also globally."
Huang also said, "Through our partnership with Hyundai, we plan to jointly develop autonomous-driving Genesis vehicles and pursue robotics together," adding, "With LG, we are jointly developing power systems and also systems that can be used in factories and homes."
"We are launching an AI Frontier Lab in Korea," Huang said. "Nvidia's leading AI researchers plan to relocate from California to Korea." He also explained, "We plan to collaborate with KAIST to build Korea AI," adding, "We have a plan to develop a Korean LLM in Korea, for Korea."
Amodei said, "I am grateful that the Korean government has singled out AI as its top priority field," and, "We will be able to collaborate in many areas." He added, "Korea's memory companies have invested a lot in Anthropic," and, "Working with Korea is truly an exciting thing."
Altman: "Korea, the Most Important Country in the World"
In his meetings with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, Lee explained the Korean government's plans to restructure industry around AI and requested active participation in the "three mega-projects." In his meeting with Altman, Lee said, "The Republic of Korea is in the process of restructuring its industry around artificial intelligence," and, "The people are truly delighted that you have shown interest and decided to invest." He also added, "I am making good use of ChatGPT (developed by OpenAI)."
In response, Altman said, "When I look at the efforts the Korean government is showing in AI, I think it is one of the most important countries in the world." He said, "It is very important that many people have access to high-quality and sufficient AI," adding, "Korea is showing a leading example, including with its three mega-projects. I hope leaders of other countries will follow President Lee's leadership and investment even more." Lee said, "The three mega-projects are truly a national decision," adding, "I ask that CEO Altman participate a lot and take on an even more important role."
Meetings with Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei followed. Meeting Tan, Lee said, "The Republic of Korea has decided to make massive investment in the field of artificial intelligence and, in collaboration with companies, is preparing at a completely new level." During the meeting, Tan drew attention by giving a thumbs-up.
Tan said, "With our technology, we can contribute to the sovereign AI that Korea is advocating," and, "We are also jointly developing the latest technology, high-bandwidth HBM, with Samsung and SK hynix." He expressed confidence, saying, "When graphics processing units (GPUs) and HBM are combined, we can provide AI solutions."
Anthropic CEO: "Exciting to Collaborate With Korea"
Meeting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Lee stressed, "Korea is the optimal partner that can become Anthropic's key hub for AI infrastructure in Asia." Anthropic is one of the world's top-tier AI companies and the developer of the AI model "Mythos."
