President Lee Jae Myung Arrives in San Francisco for Tech Leader Meetings and AI Declaration

By Park Boram

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung arrived in San Francisco on Friday, where he will meet with the leaders of global tech giants, including OpenAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang.

The trip is part of the president's 11-day overseas tour that will later take him to Brazil, Chile and Argentina for bilateral summit talks with their leaders.

During his two-day visit to San Francisco, Lee will meet with the heads of four global tech giants, including Anthropic and Broadcom, to discuss investment and cooperation plans.

In a high-level event on artificial intelligence (AI), set to be held later in the day, the president plans to issue a "San Francisco AI declaration," outlining South Korea's vision for advancing the AI industry and enhancing global cooperation, according to presidential officials.

Leaders of South Korean tech conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, will join the event to discuss the Lee administration's recently announced megaprojects initiative aimed at creating a semiconductor cluster and other AI-related facilities.

At an earlier press briefing, presidential chief of staff for policy Kim Yong-beom said that the president will emphasize South Korea's commitment to investing in AI and seek investment and cooperation commitments from key companies during his trip to San Francisco.