Samsung’s Lee, SK’s Chey, Naver’s Lee to Join Nvidia’s Huang at Silicon Valley AI Roundtable

OpenAI and Anthropic chiefs may also attend

Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin are expected to meet Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The gathering would bring together an unusually broad group of leaders from companies at the center of the global artificial intelligence industry. Discussions are expected to focus on cooperation in AI infrastructure.

A roundtable involving leaders from Samsung, SK, Naver and Nvidia is being arranged near Silicon Valley this week, according to business sources on July 22. July 24 is the leading date under discussion. Lee, Chey, Lee and Huang are the most likely attendees, and the possible participation of OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei has also been raised.

If the meeting takes place, it would effectively mark the first time leaders of top companies spanning key parts of the global AI market — including memory, graphics processing units and generative AI services — have gathered in one place. Huang visited South Korea in early June and met executives from Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG and Naver. Another meeting little more than a month later would underscore Nvidia’s emphasis on partnerships with Korean companies.

OpenAI and Anthropic are among the most influential players in generative AI through ChatGPT and Claude, respectively. Samsung and SK are major players in memory, Nvidia dominates GPUs and AI chips, and Naver, OpenAI and Anthropic are key companies in generative AI services. The gathering appears intended to highlight a broader alliance across the AI industry.

South Korea is becoming more than a supplier of memory semiconductors in the global AI market. It is also emerging as a core partner in AI infrastructure. Expanding ties between U.S. technology companies and Korean chipmakers reflect that competitiveness, industry officials say. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix supply Nvidia with high-performance memory, including high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and both companies’ HBM4 products will be used in the next-generation Vera Rubin AI accelerator due for release in the second half of the year.

Samsung and SK also supply memory for OpenAI’s in-house AI chips. Last year, they signed an agreement to provide high-performance memory for Stargate, a next-generation AI infrastructure project valued at hundreds of trillions of won.

Cooperation is also expanding beyond memory into foundry manufacturing. Samsung Electronics is handling foundry production for the inference-focused language processing unit Grok 3, which will be deployed on Nvidia’s platform. More recently, Anthropic has discussed producing AI chips using Samsung’s 2-nanometer process, widening the scope of cooperation.

Naver is expected to use the meeting to discuss cooperation tied to its AI factory business. An AI factory is a facility that supports large-scale AI computing by combining physical infrastructure such as GPU servers, data centers and power and cooling systems with AI models and cloud technology.

When Huang visited South Korea in June, he also held a dinner over samgyeopsal, or grilled pork belly, with Chey, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Lee Hae-jin. Huang signed autographs for people at the restaurant and was seen trying the Korean custom of wrapping meat and side dishes in leafy vegetables. Citizens and reporters crowded the area from the morning to catch a glimpse of Huang and the business leaders.

That gathering was the first public dinner in about seven months since the so-called Kkanbu meeting in Seoul’s Samseong-dong in October 2025. At that meeting, Huang drew attention for dining with Lee and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung over fried chicken and somaek, a mix of soju and beer.

Kang Kyung-ju, Hankyung.com reporter qurasoha@hankyung.com