Chair Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics met on the 25th with Mukesh Ambani, chair of Reliance Industries Limited, known as the "richest person in Asia," to discuss ways to expand cooperation in new business areas such as semiconductors, telecommunications, data centers, and batteries. Chair Ambani is India's richest person, with a net worth of $116 billion (about 170 trillion won). The Reliance group is India's largest among corporations, operating in petrochemicals, steel, telecommunications, retail, and finance.
Chair Ambani entered the country on the morning of the day via the Business Aviation Center at Gimpo Airport in Gangseo District, Seoul, to meet Chair Lee and top executives of key affiliates including Samsung Electronics. Accompanying Ambani on this trip to Korea was his eldest son, Akash Ambani, chair of the board of Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Samsung said in a separate release the same day that it introduced ▲ artificial intelligence (AI) ▲ Extended Reality (XR) ▲ foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) ▲ AI data centers ▲ next-generation communications ▲ future displays ▲ cloud ▲ batteries and energy storage systems (ESS) ▲ plant construction and engineering to Chair Ambani during his visit to the Samsung Electronics Seocho office in Seocho District, Seoul. Senior executives from Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, Samsung SDI, Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung E&A, and the Samsung Human Resources Development Center briefed Ambani on their business status. Ambani also tried out new technologies such as "Galaxy XR," which Samsung Electronics launched at the end of last month, and the "micro red, green, blue (RGB) display."
Chair Lee also joined Chair Ambani for dinner the same day to seek ways to expand cooperation. Attending were key executives including ▲ Roh Tae-Moon, president of Samsung Electronics ▲ Kim Woo-joon, head of the networks business at Samsung Electronics ▲ Choi Joo-sun, president of Samsung SDI ▲ Lee June-hee, president of Samsung SDS ▲ Choi Sung-an, vice chair of Samsung Heavy Industries ▲ Oh Se-chul, president of Samsung C&T ▲ Namgoong Hong, president of Samsung E&A ▲ Lee Jae-eon, president of the trading division at Samsung C&T.
◇ Reliance's "deep-tech transition" aims for synergy with Samsung
Reliance has recently expanded its business structure, previously centered on chemicals and retail, into the information and communications technology (ICT) field. Samsung showcased a variety of future cutting-edge technologies from its affiliates that can create synergy in line with this. Having identified AI, renewable energy, and future manufacturing as future growth drivers and declared a transition into a "deep-tech" corporations, Reliance recently released the construction of the world's largest AI data center in India.
With Samsung Electronics, the structure allows for expanded cooperation in next-generation network solutions such as AI Semiconductor and sixth-generation mobile communications (6G). Samsung said it expects "business cooperation opportunities between Samsung, which has comprehensive capabilities in not only semiconductors, communications, displays, and batteries but also engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), and Reliance to expand in the future."
◇ Ties forged through 4G equipment supply, with hopes to expand to 6G
Samsung and Reliance have maintained close relations since the tenure of the late former Chair Lee Kun-hee. They strengthened business cooperation in 2012 with a contract to build a fourth-generation mobile communications (4G LTE) network with Reliance Jio, India's largest telecom company, which led to a supply of fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) radio access network equipment in Dec. 2022. Samsung hopes such cooperation will expand to supplying 6G equipment and building AI data centers going forward.
Chair Lee and Chair Ambani met again on the day after about one year and four months. Chair Lee attended the wedding of Ambani's youngest son, Anant Ambani, held in Mumbai, India, in Jul. last year. Earlier, in 2018, Lee attended the wedding of Ambani's eldest daughter, and in 2019, the wedding of his eldest son. Chair Lee is the only Korean businessperson invited to all of Ambani's children's weddings.