President Lee Jae-myung, who is on a 7-night, 11-day tour of five countries in the United States, South America, and Germany, wrapped up his U.S. schedule on the 25th (local time) and headed to Brazil, the second stop.
Lee departed for Brasília, the capital of Brazil, aboard Air Force One from San Francisco International Airport. Kang Kyung-hwa, ambassador to the United States, and Consul General Lim Jeong-taek in San Francisco and their spouses were at the airport to see off the president and first lady, according to reports.
Lee's U.S. schedule focused on "AI sales diplomacy," directly explaining Korea's AI project to global big-tech corporations and eliciting cooperation.
On the 24th, immediately after arriving in San Francisco, the United States, Lee met in succession with global big-tech chief executive officers (CEOs) from Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Broadcom, introduced the government's "three mega projects," and asked for investment and cooperation. He then hosted the "San Francisco AI Summit" together with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong; SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won; Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun; and Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin.
On the 25th, a meetup was held with six venture capital (VC) firms, and the National Pension Service (NPS) also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand cooperation in the venture ecosystem and build long-term partnerships.
On the 26th in Brazil, Lee will begin his state-visit schedule with a welcome reception hosted by President Lula. Before departure, Lee wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "Over the past year, I have met President Lula several times and built a deep friendship," adding, "I feel excited, as if I were going to see an old friend."
After Brazil, he plans to visit Chile and Argentina in sequence to focus on discussing ways to strengthen cooperation on critical mineral supply chains, along with strategies to diversify food and energy import sources.