The leaders of South Korea’s top four conglomerates are expected to meet US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this weekend, a high-profile encounter that could inject new momentum into stalled trade and investment talks between Seoul and Washington.
Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo have been invited to an investment event for OpenAI Inc.’s $500 billion Stargate artificial intelligence project, hosted by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, according to people familiar with the matter on Wednesday.
The event, scheduled for Saturday at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, will draw about 70 global business figures.
Trump is expected to join a round of golf during his three-day stay beginning Friday, offering the Korean moguls a potential opportunity for direct dialogue on Seoul’s proposed $350 billion US investment package – a key sticking point in recent tariff discussions.
Their trip overlaps with high-level negotiations in Washington D.C., where South Korean officials are seeking to bridge differences with their US counterparts on the same investment and tariff package.
Kim Yong-beom, South Korea’s presidential chief of staff for policy, and Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan are scheduled to depart for Washington on Thursday, while Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yoon-cheol left a day earlier to attend the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo has been in the US since Tuesday for working-level talks.
Seoul aims to finalize a deal before Trump’s possible meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the APEC leaders’ summit in Korea later this month.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (right) pose for a photo with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman after signing a letter of intent (LOI) to cooperate in building a global AI infrastructure
In addition to the $350 billion commitment, Korean companies announced another $150 billion US investment in August across semiconductors, batteries, shipbuilding and critical minerals, signing 11 memoranda of understanding in the process.
During a meeting with Trump later this week, the Korean business leaders could offer more detailed or revised investment plans, which could help break an impasse in the tariff and investment talks.
AI STARGATE LINKS WILL DEEPEN
The Mar-a-Lago gathering is also expected to advance the Stargate Project, a joint venture by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build large-scale AI data centers in the US and abroad, part of a broader effort to strengthen the West’s technological edge over China.
The move has won strong backing from Trump.
Earlier this month, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Inc. signed letters of intent with OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman during his Seoul trip to supply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors for the Stargate initiative.
Under the agreements, Korea’s two memory giants, which are also the world’s top two, will deliver a large portion of the HBMs used in OpenAI’s custom AI accelerators.
Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang and Woo-Sub Kim at hjs@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.