South Korea’s Lee to Meet Jensen Huang in San Francisco on July 24 Ahead of US, South America and Germany Trip

Lee to unveil ‘San Francisco AI Declaration’

Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor and Naver chiefs to gather

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will visit San Francisco, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Germany from July 24 to Aug. 3, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac and presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said at a July 22 briefing.

Lee will be in San Francisco on July 24 and July 25, where he plans to meet global artificial intelligence leaders including Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and Broadcom Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan, along with Silicon Valley venture investors, Kim said.

Lee will then attend the San Francisco AI Summit. There, he will discuss the vision for three mega projects with business leaders including Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin. He will also announce the “San Francisco AI Declaration.”

After the US leg of the trip, Lee will make a state visit to Brazil from July 26 to July 29 at the invitation of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He is set to hold a summit with Lula and attend other official events. He will then make an official two-day visit to Chile starting July 29 and hold a summit with Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast, whose administration took office this year. From July 30 to Aug. 1, Lee will visit Argentina for a summit with President Javier Milei.

The trip is expected to help expand trade and investment with Brazil, Chile and Argentina, which Wi described as South America’s key economic powers, and support efforts to develop new markets. He added that the visit would also broaden South Korea’s diplomatic reach across the Global South.

Choi Su-jin, Hankyung.com reporter naive@hankyung.com