South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with the chief executives of Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and IBM in San Francisco on Thursday, urging the global technology giants to take on expanded roles in South Korea’s artificial intelligence investment projects.
The high-level engagement underscores Seoul’s strategic push to position itself as a central hub for AI infrastructure and development, leveraging direct access to the firms driving the sector’s capital expenditure cycle.
The meeting comes shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a landmark $500 billion partnership with South Korea’s SK Group, signaling a massive escalation in US-Korean semiconductor and AI collaboration.
The meeting comes shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a landmark $500 billion partnership with South Korea’s SK Group, signaling a massive escalation in US-Korean semiconductor and AI collaboration.
Handelsavisen notes that this diplomatic outreach aligns with Nvidia’s broader strategy to deepen ties with Asian foundry and infrastructure partners, reinforcing the supply chain’s resilience amid growing global demand for data center capacity.
President Lee’s direct appeal to OpenAI and other major AI model developers highlights South Korea’s ambition to move beyond hardware manufacturing into the core of AI software and model development.
The administration is seeking to attract not just capital, but intellectual property and technical leadership, aiming to integrate domestic firms into the global AI value chain at higher margins.