President Yoon Suk Yeol secured a $950 billion (approximately 1.4 trillion won) partnership in San Francisco on July 24, focusing on semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as well as physical AI. This initiative brought together leading domestic and international companies with a combined valuation exceeding 2 quadrillion won, while also establishing an investment network connecting Silicon Valley venture capitalists with Korean startups.
The most significant achievement is a semiconductor collaboration set to unfold over the next five years. Samsung Electronics and Broadcom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a $200 billion partnership in advanced memory semiconductor supply and AI chip production. SK Group is also pursuing a long-term supply agreement worth $750 billion with global tech giants like NVIDIA.
The scope of collaboration has expanded to include data centers and physical AI. Domestic companies and big tech firms are planning investments in AI data centers with a capacity of approximately 5GW and around 2 million NVIDIA B200 standard GPUs. Naver, with support from NVIDIA and Brookfield, aims to establish a $10 billion global AI factory.
Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA are jointly developing a 'robot reference platform' to support university and startup robotics initiatives, while Hyundai is also pursuing a self-driving car foundry project with Waymo. Samsung SDS and Anthropic have formed a strategic partnership to explore the AI market and cultivate engineers.
During the event, President Yoon met with Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom; and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, to invite them to participate in South Korea's three major mega projects. Huang remarked, "It is not an exaggeration to say that this is truly South Korea's golden age," to which President Yoon responded, "This is just the beginning."
In the 'San Francisco AI Declaration,' President Yoon stated, "South Korea will rise as a key player in the irreplaceable global AI supply chain," adding that the country aims to become a reliable production base for AI semiconductors and a supply chain partner, leveraging its world-class memory semiconductor competitiveness and production capacity.
At a subsequent dinner, President Yoon and CEOs of major U.S. tech companies discussed AI collaboration strategies. Attendees included Huang, Hock Tan, and Rani Borkar, President of Microsoft Azure Hardware, along with Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics; Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group; Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; and Lee Hae-jin, Chairman of Naver's board.
The following day, July 25, President Yoon discussed cooperation in the U.S.-Korea venture ecosystem with representatives from six major Silicon Valley VCs, including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. The National Pension Service and these VCs agreed to establish a long-term cooperation framework through an MOU to enhance overseas investment opportunities and global expansion for promising 'K-startups.'
President Yoon stated, "When Korean startups meet U.S. capital and markets, and when U.S. investors and innovative companies connect with South Korea's technology, manufacturing, and talent ecosystem, the two countries will become partners in innovation for the next 30 years."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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