South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will visit Silicon Valley this Friday, accompanied by executives from major Korean companies including Samsung and SK Hynix. The meeting will focus on HBM, GPUs, and generative AI, discussing chip procurement, collaboration on advanced process technologies, and AI infrastructure development.
This trip aims to reinforce South Korea’s pivotal role in the AI supply chain, and the cooperation signals it sends will serve as a key indicator for observing global investment trends in the AI industry.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is set to embark on a five-nation tour spanning the United States, South America, and Germany, with his first stop in Silicon Valley. High-level meetings with executives from core companies in the global AI supply chain are drawing significant market attention.
According to Yonhap News Agency on July 22, Lee Jae-myung will arrive in San Francisco, United States, this Friday for a two-day visit and plans to meet with tech industry leaders including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA.
Meanwhile,$Samsung Electronics (005930.KR)$Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, and Naver Board Chair Lee Hae-jin are also expected to meet with Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is expected to attend related events.
If this lineup materializes, the meeting would represent a rare convergence of leaders from South Korea’s two leading memory chipmakers alongside key decision-makers from global enterprises dominating GPU technology, generative AI, and internet platforms.
As the sustainability of AI infrastructure investment becomes a focal point for markets, whether these high-level discussions signal new collaborations in procurement, manufacturing, or data center development will serve as a critical window into the next phase of global AI supply chain cooperation.
Key players in the AI supply chain gather, potentially expanding collaboration scope
Reports indicate that the upcoming roundtable discussion is expected to focus on HBM, high-performance GPU infrastructure, and generative AI.
If all parties attend as expected,$Samsung Electronics (005930.KR)$、$SK hynix (SKHY.US)$、$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$、$NAVER (035420.KR)$executives from NAVER, OpenAI, and Anthropic will gather at the same table, covering critical segments of the AI supply chain—from memory storage and chip design to advanced manufacturing and large model development.
Market attention has shifted beyond traditional chip procurement toward deeper collaboration in AI computing deployment, data center construction, model-as-a-service offerings, and advanced process manufacturing. As demand for AI training and inference continues to rise, the synergy among GPUs, HBM, and cloud infrastructure is emerging as a new core competitive factor in the industry.
South Korean companies continue strengthening their position in the AI supply chain
South Korean memory manufacturers have become key participants in the global AI supply chain.
$Samsung Electronics (005930.KR)$and$SK hynix (SKHY.US)$Currently both supply high-end memory products such as HBM to$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$According to reports, the two companies are advancing the adoption of HBM4 products, which are expected to be used in NVIDIA’s next-generation AI platform, Vera Rubin.
In addition to NVIDIA, both companies are also key memory suppliers for OpenAI’s in-house AI chips and have signed agreements to provide high-performance memory products for the Stargate AI infrastructure project.
This indicates that South Korean firms are transitioning from traditional memory suppliers to core partners in AI infrastructure. For investors, progress on HBM qualifications, product adoption timelines, and long-term supply agreements will remain critical indicators for assessing the realization of their AI-related business potential.
Advanced process technology collaboration could become the next focal point.
Beyond memory, advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes may also be a key topic of discussion during these talks.
According to reports,$Samsung Electronics (005930.KR)$It is currently producing NVIDIA’s language processing units (LPUs) Grok 3 for inference applications and is also in discussions with Anthropic regarding the use of its 2-nanometer process technology for AI chip manufacturing.
If these collaborations advance further, Samsung stands to benefit simultaneously from growing demand for both advanced logic foundry services and HBM, thereby strengthening its strategic position within the AI hardware supply chain.
However, such collaborations ultimately depend on customer orders, technical validation, and capacity planning. The market will closely monitor whether the meetings yield additional signals regarding long-term procurement commitments, product roadmaps, or manufacturing partnerships.
Naver bets on 'AI factories' as infrastructure competition intensifies.
South Korean internet giant Naver is expected to present its "AI Factory" strategy during the conference.
The initiative aims to integrate GPU servers, data centers, power and cooling systems, AI models, and cloud platforms into a unified infrastructure to support large-scale AI training and inference requirements.
This strategic move reflects how AI competition is shifting beyond model capabilities toward a comprehensive contest over infrastructure systems—including computing power, energy, data centers, and cloud services. As model scales continue to expand, the efficiency of infrastructure deployment and operational capabilities are becoming critical determinants of competitiveness in AI commercialization.
For Naver, deepening collaboration with GPU manufacturers and large-model developers is also expected to further enhance its AI infrastructure deployment capabilities and broaden synergies within South Korea’s domestic AI ecosystem.
Markets are watching whether AI-related capital expenditures will continue to materialize.
The Silicon Valley meeting comes at a time when markets are actively debating whether investments in AI infrastructure are approaching a cyclical peak, making the signals it sends highly anticipated by capital markets.
According to industry sources cited in reports, if the meeting leads to clearer procurement plans, manufacturing partnerships, or infrastructure development arrangements, it would further validate the resilience of AI demand and help alleviate market concerns about a potential peak in AI-related capital spending.
Some industry observers believe that supply tightness for HBM could persist until 2027. Should the meeting yield a clearer roadmap for AI infrastructure investment or establish long-term cooperation frameworks, such developments would serve as a key barometer for the next phase of prosperity in the AI supply chain.
Want to select stocks or get a stock diagnosis? Curious about the opportunities and risks in your portfolio? For all your investment questions,Just ask Futubull AI!
Editor/melody