"It is no exaggeration to say that South Korea is truly in a golden age." That was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's assessment of South Korea's AI industry. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also expressed strong expectations for South Korea's AI investment and industrial ecosystem.
President Lee Jae Myung, currently on a tour of the United States and Latin America, held a series of meetings with the heads of global AI companies in San Francisco on Friday (local time) to discuss AI cooperation, according to Yonhap.
In his meeting with Huang, Lee expressed gratitude, saying, "The entire world is on the verge of fundamental change, and Jensen Huang is at the very forefront of it. Thanks to the smooth GPU supply you provided as promised at the APEC summit, we too are changing rapidly, even from an unprepared state."
He added, "Our government is preparing a new society and a new country centered on artificial intelligence through three mega projects, and I hope Jensen Huang will continue to play a major role."
Lee also struck a warm tone, telling Huang that "a leather jacket always suits you well," and recalled wanting to join last year's chimaek (fried chicken and beer) gathering at Kkanbuchicken with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung. "I was sorry to miss it," he said.
Huang responded warmly, saying, "I visited Seoul last month, and the energy I felt in South Korea — from fried chicken to samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) — was truly remarkable."
"Koreans all love AI," Huang said. "South Korea has achieved so much in one year under President Lee's leadership. It is no exaggeration to say this is truly South Korea's golden age."
In his meeting with Altman the same day, Lee said South Korea was "in the process of restructuring its industries around artificial intelligence" and thanked Altman for his attention and investment decisions, saying "the Korean people are truly delighted."
Lee added that he himself was "making good use of ChatGPT."
Altman said he considered South Korea "one of the most important countries in the world" given the efforts its government was showing on AI.
"It is very important for many people to have access to high-quality and sufficient AI," Altman said. "South Korea is showing a leading example, including through its three mega projects. I hope other world leaders follow President Lee's leadership and investment."
Lee also met with Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
In his meeting with Amodei, Lee said South Korea planned to "dramatically expand investment in the AI sector going forward" and called on Anthropic to show "special attention, investment, and contribution."
Amodei said he was grateful that the South Korean government had made AI its top priority, adding, "There will be many areas where we can cooperate."
He said Anthropic placed the highest priority on collaboration with other companies and had strong expectations for working with Korean firms, noting that South Korea's memory chip manufacturers had made significant investments in Anthropic. "In that sense, we plan to cooperate in various areas, including data centers," he said.
Amodei added that Anthropic had signed an MOU with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT covering AI security, cybersecurity and related industries. "Working with South Korea is truly exciting," he said.
With Hock Tan, Lee said building an AI industrial ecosystem now required "an enormous national role" and a level of corporate collaboration "completely different from the past," and described South Korea's efforts to make large-scale AI investments and work with companies to prepare at a new level.
Lee also asked Broadcom to "play a truly significant role in building South Korea's AI ecosystem" and to help South Korea become "the most advanced AI-leading nation in the world."
Hock Tan said he was impressed that South Korea, despite being a large-conglomerate-centered society, was seeing small and medium-sized enterprises and startups launch and energize the industry, and expressed interest in South Korea's "sovereign AI" initiative — an effort to develop domestically led artificial intelligence.
arete@heraldcorp.com
