Every business trip to North America brings a meeting—JY and Musk’s ‘network’ proves effective

Big Tech's 'TSMC Check' Atmosphere

Samsung Rises as the Sole Rival

Jae-yong Lee's Role Expected to Grow

"I handled several appointments."

On the 14th, Jae-yong Lee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, spoke to reporters at Incheon Airport upon returning from a North American business trip. At the time, media interest was focused on whom Lee met and what discussions he had at the Sun Valley Conference, a networking event for IT moguls. However, Lee's private jet not only stopped by Rockbridge, Ohio, where the Sun Valley Conference took place, but also made visits to Seattle, home to the headquarters of Microsoft and Amazon, as well as San Francisco and San Jose, where companies such as Tesla, NVIDIA, Meta, and AMD are concentrated. The purpose was to meet top management from key client companies to discuss business.

Industry sources believe that Lee played a significant role in Samsung Electronics' securing of the ₩22.8 trillion foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) deal with Tesla on the 28th. Around mid-month, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who had reviewed the draft contract coordinated by Samsung Electronics and Tesla executives, entered a period of deep consideration right before finalizing the deal—reportedly, Lee contributed meaningfully at this juncture. An industry insider remarked, "Without the strong network Lee has built with CEO Musk, finalizing the last piece of the puzzle would have been difficult."

Whenever he travels to North America, Lee meets with CEO Musk, establishing a collaborative relationship akin to an alliance. Lee's network also played a significant role when Samsung Electronics landed the AI4 foundry contract—the brain of Tesla's electric vehicles—around 2022. In May 2023, Lee even invited CEO Musk to Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) North American office to discuss collaboration on advanced chip development.

Leveraging its position with Tesla, Samsung Electronics is increasingly poised to re-emerge as the 'only alternative' to TSMC in the cutting-edge sub-3-nanometer (㎚) AI chip foundry market. Intel, initially predicted to form a competitive trinity in the foundry sector alongside TSMC and Samsung Electronics, has recently entered restructuring, boosting Samsung Electronics' market value. As big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Meta embark on developing their own AI chips and become major foundry clients, Lee's role as someone who can directly communicate with these CEOs only continues to grow.

Jeongsoo Hwang, hjs@hankyung.com