Lee Jae-yong, Chey Tae-won to attend Cheong Wa Dae investment showcase Monday

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will attend a national investment showcase hosted by President Lee Jae Myung on Monday, Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday.

The event, to be held at the Cheong Wa Dae reception hall, will bring together Lee, Chey and a range of other business leaders.

Ministers from relevant ministries — including Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy — will present regional investment plans for three strategic industries: semiconductors, AI data centers and physical AI.

Specific investment figures are expected to follow from the companies themselves. Some observers say the combined investment commitments from Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and other major conglomerates could reach 1,000 trillion won.

President Lee met separately with Chey at Cheong Wa Dae on June 19 and with Lee Jae-yong on Thursday as part of efforts to coordinate the investment plans ahead of the showcase.

There is also speculation that after Monday's announcement, Lee Jae-yong and Chey could visit Gwangju on Tuesday to outline their plans for semiconductor and AI data center development there.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are reviewing plans to build front-end memory chip production lines, advanced packaging facilities and AI data centers as part of a semiconductor cluster to be established in the Honam region.

Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, said recently that "the discussions are nearing their conclusion" and that officials would "travel to investment sites region by region for a relay of showcase events." He added that Monday's event would be "an occasion to explain a program built through joint efforts by the government and businesses," and that "the numbers that come out will feel very unfamiliar."

After Gwangju, President Lee and the business leaders are expected to announce large-scale investment plans in the Chungcheong region on Wednesday and in the Yeongnam region on Thursday.

As news of planned semiconductor factories in the Honam region by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — both riding a semiconductor boom — began to circulate, opposition figures criticized the government for pushing the Honam construction for political reasons.

President Lee fired back at the criticism Saturday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing: "A Buddha sees a Buddha, and a pig sees a pig."

He added, "People often assume others think and act the same way they do."

Because the post offered no explicit context or named target, it drew a range of interpretations.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the post reflected the president's "regret over the spread of unfounded speculation and false claims about companies' concentrated investment in the regions."