Kim Yong-beom, the presidential policy chief, said that during Lee Jae-myung's visit to San Francisco, Samsung Electronics(005930) and SK hynix(000660) will sign large-scale memory chip supply contracts with U.S. big tech.
According to Reuters, Bloomberg and other foreign media on the 24th, the Deputy Minister said at a foreign press briefing the previous day that the president would use the "San Francisco artificial intelligence (AI) summit" he is attending as an opportunity to preview major deals.
The Deputy Minister said, "Samsung Electronics and SK hynix each decided to newly sign long-term contracts for specific semiconductors," and added, "There are also definitive agreements with AI data center demand corporations or corporations hoping to invest."
On the investment scale, the Deputy Minister said, "When the three mega projects were announced, people said the 4,700 trillion won (that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix decided to invest domestically) was too big a number, but I think it could be even bigger."
The Deputy Minister said the government would also accelerate diversification of supply to backstop the power demand needed when attracting domestic AI data centers.
He said, "I told Minister Kim Sung-hwan of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, 'Whether it is offshore wind, solar, pumped storage, energy storage systems (ESS), or carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), bring any technology. If it can be pushed forward within the next five years, we will inject the necessary funding to support it.'"
He continued, "Small modular reactors (SMRs) are also among the (supported) targets," noting, "In the past there was much controversy over SMRs or nuclear power itself, but recently the value of nuclear power has been reassessed."
The Deputy Minister said he is also considering social changes driven by AI development. He said the AI revolution is creating faster-than-expected economic growth, but it could pose new challenges to real estate, exchange rates, and financial markets.
The Deputy Minister said, "This is a bit different from jobless growth," adding, "It has the property of virtually eliminating the very pathways by which people first set foot in society and begin their careers."
The president set off on an 11-day trip starting with seven nights abroad. In San Francisco, the United States, Lee will meet with big tech corporation chiefs, including Jensen Huang, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nvidia, and then visit major South American countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina for summit diplomacy.