South Korea has taken another major step in its AI ambitions by bringing together some of the world’s biggest technology companies to build stronger partnerships in artificial intelligence and semiconductor innovation.
President Lee Jae Myung hosted an AI summit in San Francisco, where he met top executives from Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Broadcom, along with South Korea’s leading business leaders.
The summit reflects Seoul’s long-term strategy to become one of the world’s most important AI and chip manufacturing hubs.
The event also highlighted South Korea’s growing role in supplying the advanced chips and computing infrastructure needed to power the next generation of AI systems.
Can South Korea Become an AI Superpower?
President Lee said South Korea wants to lead the next era of artificial intelligence by working closely with global technology companies. He also introduced the San Francisco AI Declaration, which outlines the country’s vision for deeper AI cooperation with the United States.
Before the summit, Lee held separate meetings with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
Highlights:
President Lee Jae Myung brought together Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Samsung and SK Group to position South Korea as a global AI leader. The summit also announced a $500 billion-plus AI infrastructure initiative centred on next-generation data centres and advanced memory chips.
The summit also brought together South Korea’s biggest industrial leaders, including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin.
Around 150 executives, investors, researchers and startup founders attended the event, highlighting growing international interest in South Korea’s AI ecosystem.
The government’s strategy comes as global demand for AI chips, memory and computing infrastructure continues to outpace supply. South Korea already plays a critical role in the semiconductor industry through companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
AI Boom Drives Massive Chip Demand
One of the biggest announcements during the summit came from Nvidia and SK Group, which unveiled a $500 billion-plus initiative focused on AI infrastructure.
As part of the project, SK Telecom plans to build a 2-gigawatt AI data centre using Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips together with SK Hynix’s HBM4 high-bandwidth memory. The facility is expected to begin operations in 2027.
The discussions also highlighted a growing challenge facing the AI industry—finding enough advanced chips to meet rapidly rising demand.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company has signed supply agreements with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, although he did not disclose further details.
Meanwhile, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said conversations with Nvidia, Anthropic, OpenAI and Broadcom suggest future demand for AI memory chips could exceed current projections.
Chey said Nvidia’s chip requirements may continue rising over the next five years. He added that Broadcom also expects memory demand to outpace supply, while OpenAI has encouraged SK Group to supply chips directly as demand for ChatGPT’s computing infrastructure grows.
President Lee is also scheduled to meet Silicon Valley venture capital firms alongside South Korea’s National Pension Service to encourage greater investment in South Korean startups.
The summit forms part of South Korea’s broader AI strategy announced last month, which includes more than $576 billion in planned investments across semiconductor manufacturing, AI data centres and physical AI technologies. By strengthening partnerships with global technology leaders while expanding domestic chip production, South Korea aims to secure a leading position in the rapidly evolving global AI economy.