Lee meets Anthropic CEO in San Francisco, urges expanded investment in Korean firms

President Lee Jae Myung met with Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, in San Francisco on Friday (local time) during his tour of the United States and South America, discussing ways to cooperate across the AI supply chain.

"South Korea plans to dramatically expand its investment in AI, and we expect Anthropic's special attention, investment and contribution," Lee said.

He added that Korea is the ideal partner to serve as a core hub for Anthropic's AI infrastructure in Asia. Combining Anthropic's world-class AI model capabilities — as demonstrated by Claude — with Korea's semiconductors, AI data centers and the potential of its large AI consumer market would create growth opportunities for both sides, he said.

"South Korea is optimally positioned as Asia's core AI hub, and I look forward to a significant expansion of investment and cooperation with Korean companies," Lee said.

Amodei said business cooperation with Korean companies is "exciting" and a top priority, noting that Anthropic is pursuing investment in many areas — including collaboration with memory chip manufacturers and AI data centers — while also working with the Ministry of Science and ICT on cybersecurity and the development of the cyber industry.

Meanwhile, Lee is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with global Big Tech leaders seeking strategic investment cooperation with South Korea, a key supplier of AI semiconductors — including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

Lee will also attend the San Francisco AI Summit being held in the city.

The summit will bring together the Big Tech CEOs Lee has met, along with Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, to exchange views on the government's three major mega-projects.

At the event, Lee is expected to announce the "San Francisco AI Declaration," expressing Korea's commitment to becoming an indispensable nation in the global AI ecosystem.