Bill Gates to Visit South Korea Next Month for Talks on Deepening US-Korea SMR Alliance

Next-generation nuclear cooperation gathers pace

Prime Minister Han Seong-sook to discuss partnership with Gates

SK, HD Hyundai to flesh out projects

Push to expand equipment and EPC participation

Bill Gates, the founder of small modular reactor developer TerraPower and chair of the Gates Foundation, will visit South Korea next month to meet Prime Minister Han Seong-sook. Energy cooperation, including SMRs, will be the main agenda. Gates is also set to meet companies including SK and HD Hyundai to work out SMR cooperation plans. The government is separately moving to accelerate its timeline for securing SMRs as a power source for large artificial intelligence data centers.

Back in South Korea for SMR talks after a year

Gates is scheduled to visit South Korea on Aug. 14 for talks with Han, according to industry officials on July 29. His side requested the meeting, the people said. An earlier effort to arrange a meeting with President Lee Jae-myung was changed to talks with the prime minister because of scheduling conflicts. SK Group, a major TerraPower shareholder, is coordinating the agenda and attendees. During the trip, Gates will also meet South Korean companies including SK and HD Hyundai to discuss cooperation on SMR projects. One of the main topics will be expanding the role of South Korean companies in TerraPower projects.

Gates founded TerraPower in 2008 and remains chairman of the board. The company is developing Natrium, a fourth-generation reactor based on sodium-cooled fast reactor technology that uses liquid sodium as a coolant. When he met President Lee and Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan in August 2025, Gates said SMRs could offer an effective answer to rising electricity demand from the AI and semiconductor industries. He also met SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, HD Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong to review plans to expand the Natrium reactor supply chain and move commercialization forward.

Over the past year, that cooperation has shifted into the project stage. TerraPower received a construction permit from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for Kemmerer Unit 1 in Wyoming and began main reactor construction in April. It was the first next-generation commercial-scale nuclear plant in the US to receive a construction permit.

South Korean participation is also becoming more concrete. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power acquired $40 million of TerraPower shares held by SK Innovation in January. SK Group invested $250 million in 2022 to become a major shareholder in TerraPower.

Progress has also been made in equipment and construction. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was named preferred bidder in May to supply key equipment for the Reactor Enclosure System, a major component of the Natrium reactor. Doosan Enerbility was selected to manufacture and supply core equipment including the core barrel and guard vessel.

Aligned with the government's push to expand nuclear power

Gates's visit comes as the government steps up support for SMRs. Global electricity consumption by data centers is projected to more than double to 945 terawatt-hours in 2030 from 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 as AI adoption expands. South Korea is also pursuing a mega project to build 18.4 gigawatts of AI data centers by 2035.

As AI data centers and semiconductor plants expand, securing electricity supplies has become increasingly important. The government is now detailing a bigger role for nuclear power and SMRs. On July 23, it announced its policy direction for fostering next-generation SMRs and said it would launch a cross-government support system linking development, demonstration, licensing and commercialization. The plan calls for public-private SMR projects and a domestic manufacturing supply chain and nuclear fuel ecosystem to shorten the commercialization timeline. A special SMR law to support technology development and commercialization will take effect in September.

Bae Kyung-hoon, deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, said at a July 20 anniversary briefing that electricity is critical for operating AI data centers. The government is seriously reviewing how to bring forward its existing SMR procurement plan, he said.

Lee Young-ae / Kim Hyung-kyu, Hankyung.com reporters 0ae@hankyung.com