Korea, US tech giants set sights on $950 billion in chip partnerships: Seoul

Ji Da-gyum

For over a decade, I’ve navigated the complexities of North Korean affairs, security, and foreign policy from both Seoul and Washington, D.C. As the National Desk Political Team Lead, I track the pulse of geopolitics, closely following developments from the Unification Ministry and the Foreign Ministry. My mornings start with Rodong Sinmun—North Korea’s state mouthpiece—before diving into the day’s headlines from Seoul and Washington.

San Francisco visit turns Lee’s three flagship megaprojects into global investment President Lee Jae Myung poses for a photo with global AI leaders during the San Francisco AI Summit at The Midway in San Francisco on Friday. From left are Deputy Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, President Lee, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Naver founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin and presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom. (Yonhap) South Korean and US technology giants agreed to pursue $950 billion in semiconductor supply and manufacturing partnerships over the next five years, unveiling a sweeping series of deals at the San Francisco AI Summit.The partnerships, announced during President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco, are intended to advance the Lee administration’s flagship megaprojects across semiconductors, AI data centers and physical AI.“We have developed concrete investment and cooperation plans with global partners across every core area of the three megaprojects, from semiconductors and AI data centers to physical AI,” presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said at a briefing Saturday following the summit.On the chip front, “Korean companies and global big tech firms have agreed to pursue cooperation worth a combined $950 billion, or 1,375 trillion won,” Kim said.Samsung Electronics and Broadcom signed a memorandum of understanding covering $200 billion, or about 290 trillion won, in advanced memory-chip supplies and foundry cooperation for AI chip production over the next five years, Kim explained.SK Group agreed to pursue $750 billion in long-term advanced memory-chip supply partnerships with Nvidia and other global technology companies over the same period.Investment in AI data centers, Physical AIOn the data center front, Kim said, “Korean companies and global big tech firms have agreed to pursue investment partnerships for large-scale AI data centers with about 5 gigawatts of power capacity and some 2 million graphics processing units.”SK Telecom agreed with Nvidia to build and expand AI data centers with up to 2 gigawatts of capacity, with Nvidia supporting the projects and giving the South Korean telecom operator priority access to its latest Vera Rubin systems.SK Telecom will also pursue investment cooperation with Anthropic on a gigawatt-scale AI data center project in South Korea.The company separately agreed to expand its existing partnership with Amazon Web Services on an AI data center in Ulsan to other major hubs across the country, seeking to secure gigawatt-scale AI computing capacity.Naver plans to build a global “AI factory” worth a combined $10 billion through a strategic investment agreement with Nvidia and an infrastructure supply deal with global investment firm Brookfield, according to Kim.Naver will secure $1 billion in investment from Nvidia to expand GPU supplies and technological cooperation. Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion in support to jointly establish the stable infrastructure and supply chains needed to operate the gigawatt-scale AI factory.In physical AI, services and talent development, Hyundai Motor Group and Nvidia agreed to jointly establish a standardized “robot reference platform” for developing and testing AI-powered robots. The platform will support universities and startups in developing a wider range of robotic systems.Hyundai also unveiled an “autonomous vehicle foundry” plan with Waymo, while Samsung SDS and Anthropic signed a strategic partnership to jointly develop new AI markets and train AI engineers.From AI vision to actionLee attended the San Francisco AI Summit on Friday after holding separate meetings with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.Kim said the one-on-one meetings “further expanded the scale and strengthened the execution of the three megaprojects for Korea’s next great leap by turning cooperation between Korean companies and global big tech firms into concrete plans.”The summit brought the four US technology executives together with some of South Korea’s most prominent business leaders, including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun and Naver founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin.About 230 business leaders, researchers, startup founders, investors and students also attended, according to Kim.During the summit, Lee unveiled the San Francisco Declaration on AI, laying claim to an indispensable role for South Korea in the global AI economy. His vision casts Korea as a place where AI is built and supplied, swiftly put to work and carried into new markets — with responsible, human-centered development turning its gains into opportunity for all.After the summit, Lee joined Huang, Tan, Rani Borkar, president of Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure at Microsoft, and the South Korean business leaders for dinner at a nearby restaurant, where they held what Kim described as a candid discussion.In a relaxed atmosphere, the participants raised their beer glasses as Lee called out, “We are—” and the guests responded, “Family,” pledging to work together to strengthen the global AI supply chain, Kim said.Huang and other US executives said that while developing AI technology was difficult, it was by no means impossible. They expressed confidence that investment in Korea could produce a top-tier frontier AI model within a short period.They also said that while Korea could use AI models developed elsewhere, the country needed to build an AI model of its own, according to Kim.Kim underscored the significance of Lee’s stop in San Francisco ahead of his trip to Brazil, Chile and Argentina.“This visit was intended to demonstrate at home and abroad that the three megaprojects announced last month constitute a major global initiative jointly developed by Korea, with its powerful semiconductor industry, and big tech companies seeking strategic investment partnerships,” Kim said.“It was also designed to generate investment partnerships across the full AI stack by combining the technology and capital of global big tech firms with Korea’s capabilities not only in semiconductors but across the broader AI ecosystem,” he added.