While headlines focused on Lee's meetings with Nvidia, Broadcom and other technology giants, Monday's attention shifted to his separate gathering with six leading U.S. venture capital firms, fueling expectations that Korean startups could gain greater access to global funding.
The benchmark KOSPI traded lower as investors instead watched the blockbuster Shanghai debut of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT, whose shares surged about 500 percent in their first trading session, reinforcing competitive concerns in the semiconductor sector.
The KOSDAQ, however, outperformed as buying spread across artificial intelligence, robotics and deep-tech names.
Industrial automation company Hyundai Movex jumped 14.7 percent to 22,050 won. Rainbow Robotics, backed by Samsung Electronics, climbed 6.0 percent to 443,500 won, while robotic automation developer Cosmo Robotics gained 2.6 percent to 14,680 won.
Investors viewed Lee's Silicon Valley meetings as a potential catalyst for improving Korean startups' access to overseas venture funding rather than an immediate earnings driver.
"The biggest structural weakness of the KOSDAQ has been that many technology companies have struggled to clearly differentiate themselves and secure sufficient capital for long-term growth," said Baek Jong-min, an analyst at Yuanta Securities.
"If cooperation with leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms leads to actual investment, it could enhance the global credibility of Korean technology companies and provide a meaningful positive signal for the market."
The optimism was reinforced by Lee's pledge to make South Korea "the world's best environment for investment and entrepreneurship" through easier visa rules, deeper cooperation with overseas investors and expanded financial and global-market support for startups.
As part of the initiative, the National Pension Service signed investment cooperation memorandums of understanding with Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Khosla Ventures. The six venture firms collectively manage roughly $313 billion in assets, while the NPS oversees about 1.69 quadrillion won ($1.2 trillion).
The agreements are intended to identify promising Korean startups, expand cross-border investment opportunities and strengthen venture ecosystems in both countries.
Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom said the meetings were intended to deepen investment cooperation between global technology companies and South Korea's AI sector.
"The purpose was to combine the technology and capital of global Big Tech companies with Korea's capabilities not only in semiconductors but across the entire AI ecosystem, including infrastructure, models and physical AI, to generate tangible investment and cooperation," Kim said after the summit.
He described the meetings as "a giant global initiative" prepared jointly with major technology companies seeking strategic investment cooperation with South Korea, rather than a one-off diplomatic event.
The lineup underscored the significance of the meeting. Sequoia Capital was an early investor in Apple, Nvidia and Google. Andreessen Horowitz backed Meta and Instagram during their early growth, while Khosla Ventures invested in OpenAI before the generative AI boom. Andreessen Horowitz recently opened a Seoul office, highlighting growing interest among global investors in South Korea's startup ecosystem.
Still, whether those discussions translate into concrete investment commitments remains to be seen. For now, the meetings have offered the KOSDAQ a sentiment boost rather than a structural turning point. The startup-heavy market has struggled to keep pace with the KOSPI's AI-driven rally, and investors say only sustained capital inflows from global venture firms would change that narrative.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.