Lee Jae Myung hosts AI summit with Nvidia, OpenAI in $500B push

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung hosted an AI summit in San Francisco on Friday with the heads of Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Broadcom, part of a push to secure as much as $500 billion in AI investment partnerships.

"South Korea is committed to becoming an irreplaceable partner in the global AI supply chain," Lee said at the summit, according to a statement from his office.

The meetings included Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Eui-sun and Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin accompanied the president. The summit focused on three flagship initiatives: advanced semiconductors, physical AI and AI data center infrastructure.

South Korea, home to the world's two largest memory chipmakers in Samsung and SK Hynix, is racing to translate its semiconductor manufacturing dominance into AI leadership. The country faces competition from the US, China and Taiwan in attracting AI investment and talent, with the global AI market projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030.

San Francisco AI Declaration Sets National Ambition

Lee plans to issue a "San Francisco AI Declaration" outlining South Korea's vision for advancing the AI industry and enhancing global cooperation, according to presidential officials. The declaration is expected to include commitments to AI infrastructure investment, research collaboration and talent development. Multiple memorandums of understanding between South Korean companies and US tech firms are expected to follow the summit.

The meetings come as Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI training chips, faces intensifying competition from custom chip designs by Broadcom and in-house efforts by cloud providers. Nvidia's data center revenue reached $47.5 billion in its most recent fiscal year, while Broadcom's AI-related revenue hit $12.2 billion, underscoring the scale of the infrastructure buildout South Korea is seeking to tap.

$500 Billion Opportunity in AI Infrastructure

South Korea's three mega-projects represent a potential $500 billion investment opportunity over the next decade, according to estimates cited by presidential officials. The country's existing strengths in memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, position it as a critical node in the global AI supply chain.

Samsung and SK Hynix together control more than 90 percent of the global HBM market, a product that has become essential for training large language models. Nvidia's H100 and B200 GPUs rely on HBM memory supplied by the two South Korean companies, giving Seoul leverage in AI partnership negotiations.

For investors, the summit signals deepening alignment between South Korea's government and its largest conglomerates on AI spending. Samsung Electronics trades at 18 times forward earnings, a discount to Nvidia's 35 times, reflecting the market's view that memory chipmakers capture less of the AI value chain than chip designers. If the partnership agreements materialize into joint ventures or co-investment vehicles, that valuation gap could narrow.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.