Larry Fink · Sam Altman · Jensen Huang… Lee meets 'AI big shots'

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

President Lee Jae-myung said he has been strengthening the capabilities of the domestic AI ecosystem through cooperation with global AI firms such as BlackRock, OpenAI, and NVIDIA.
He stated that in September in New York he agreed with Larry Fink of BlackRock to cooperate on building AI and renewable energy infrastructure, and in October secured a memory semiconductor supply agreement with Samsung Electronics and SK Group.
He said he secured major global investments, including a priority domestic supply of 260,000 GPUs from Jensen Huang of NVIDIA and attracting US$5 billion in investment from AWS.

Since taking office in June, President Lee Jae-myung met BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and on the 5th he met Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank Group. He is expanding contacts with major global AI players to advance into the ranks of the world's three major AI powers.

Kim Yong-beom, Director of Policy at the Presidential Office, said in a briefing that "Through cooperation ranging from BlackRock to OpenAI and NVIDIA, the president has been strengthening capabilities across the AI ecosystem," adding, "In that respect, the meeting with Chairman Son is in continuity with the president's global activities."

In September in New York, the president met with Chairman Fink and agreed to cooperate on building AI and renewable energy infrastructure. In October, at the Yongsan Presidential Office, he arranged a meeting with CEO Sam Altman, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, resulting in a memory semiconductor supply contract.

In the same month in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, he obtained a promise from CEO Jensen Huang to prioritize supplying 260,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to the country, which are in short supply. Around the same time in Gyeongju, he met Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), and secured more than US$5 billion in investment to establish AI data centers in the Incheon and Gyeonggi areas.

The president is expected to meet more frequently with AI 'big shots' to discuss the development of South Korea's AI ecosystem. Kim said, "I think the president and Chairman Son will not stop at this meeting and may meet from time to time when opportunities arise."

Reporter Kim Hyung-kyu khk@hankyung.com