Major South Korean companies and global big tech firms will pursue semiconductor supply and production cooperation worth a total of $9,500 billion and build AI data centres with a combined capacity of 5 gigawatts. The government plans to support smooth implementation of the agreements and foster South Korea as a global AI production base and a cooperation platform.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Friday it held the San Francisco AI Summit on July 24 local time in San Francisco with participation from major domestic and overseas companies.

Leaders from AI companies gathered to share future visions and announce large-scale AI investment initiatives. Attendees from South Korea included Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (이재용), SK Chairman Chey Tae-won (최태원), Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun (정의선) and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin (이해진).

Overseas attendees included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined by video.

◆Global AI leaders gather... discuss semiconductor and infrastructure cooperation

President Lee Jae-myung (이재명) presented a vision in the 'San Francisco AI Declaration' for South Korea to rise as a key hub in the global AI supply chain based on its world-class memory semiconductor capabilities. A subsequent 'Global AI Leaders Dialogue' announced cooperation measures and detailed implementation plans among domestic and overseas companies, including semiconductor supply and production, AI infrastructure construction, and development and spread of physical AI.

The summit led to a total of six agreements between South Korean companies and overseas big tech firms. Under the agreements, companies will pursue semiconductor supply and production cooperation worth a total of $9,500 billion and cooperate on building AI data centres with a combined capacity of 5 GW.

Samsung Electronics will pursue cooperation with Broadcom on supplying advanced memory semiconductors and foundry cooperation for AI chip production worth a total of $2,000 billion over five years from this year through 2030. Samsung SDS will build a partnership with Anthropic to jointly identify new AI markets and to train applied AI engineers.

SK Group, centered on SK hynix and SK Telecom, will carry out cooperation worth a total of $5,000 billion with Nvidia. It includes purchases of advanced memory semiconductors and building and expanding AI data centres with capacity of up to 2 GW. The plan also includes prioritised allocation of the latest graphics processing unit, the 'Vera Rubin' system.

It will also pursue long-term supply cooperation with Microsoft for memory semiconductors for AI data centres and expand cooperation with Amazon Web Services on expanding AI data centres in South Korea. SK Telecom will also pursue investment cooperation with Anthropic on a gigawatt-class AI data centre project in South Korea.

◆Naver AI factory, Hyundai Motor physical AI ecosystem buildout

Naver will work with Nvidia and global investment firm Brookfield to expand a global AI factory worth a total of $100 billion. It will attract $10 billion in investment from Nvidia and expand GPU supply and technology cooperation. It plans to secure infrastructure support worth up to $90 billion from Brookfield.

Hyundai Motor Group announced a city-scale physical AI vision that combines vehicle manufacturing capabilities with robotics and data. It will jointly build a 'robot reference platform' with Nvidia to support robot development by universities and startups. It will cooperate with Waymo to build an autonomous driving ecosystem.

Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon (배경훈), who also serves as minister of science and ICT, said, "The fact that global big tech and our companies gathered in one place to discuss cooperation allowed us to confirm the high standing of South Korea's AI," and added, "We will support the successful implementation of the AI investment initiative and focus our policy capabilities so that South Korea can rise as an irreplaceable global AI production base and an AI cooperation platform."