Lee Jae-yong and Jensen Huang 'Warm Embrace'... Chey Tae-won Invites Jensen Huang to October APEC "Positive Response"

[Financial News] "I hope this will be the starting point for Korea and the US to head towards a 'Manufacturing Renaissance' and 'Glorious Golden Age'." (Ryu Jin, Chairman of the Korea Economic Association)
On the 25th (local time), at the 'Business Roundtable', an event linked to the Korea-US Summit held at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC, USA. Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, the number one company by market capitalization in the US, embraced each other warmly, drawing attention. It symbolizes the strengthening of the semiconductor alliance between Korea and the US. 
 Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group and Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who is leading the 'HBM Market No. 1', also had a separate meeting with Jensen Huang CEO in Washington, discussing the strengthening of HBM cooperation.
 On this day, business leaders from Korea and the US, including semiconductor companies, nuclear power, shipbuilding, automotive, and aviation, shouted, "Let's open the era of the manufacturing renaissance together with Korea and the US." At the site, 16 Korean representative business leaders, known as the 'Avengers Team' of the Korean business world, and 21 American business leaders gathered. The business community plans to further expand the contact point between the Korean and US economies through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit and the CEO Summit, a related event, in October.
■Lee Jae-yong, Chey Tae-won, Jensen Huang... HBM Triangular Cooperation System
The industry is paying attention to the fact that Chairman Lee Jae-yong and CEO Jensen Huang publicly demonstrated a close relationship. The two had a private meeting in the US just about ten days ago. Chairman Lee, upon returning from a business trip to the US on the 15th, mentioned, "I came back preparing for next year," raising expectations that specific discussions on HBM supply with CEO Huang would have taken place.  
CEO Jensen Huang's attendance at this event itself is interpreted as being focused on Korea-US semiconductor cooperation. Unlike other CEOs such as Boeing and Amazon Web Services (AWS) who visited the event to sign specific business cooperation agreements (MOUs) with Korean companies, CEO Huang seems to have focused on expressing his commitment to Korea-US semiconductor cooperation through meetings with President Lee Jae-myung and the heads of Samsung and SK Hynix. 

NVIDIA currently dominates more than 80% of the AI chip market. In the semiconductor industry, it is believed that if Samsung Electronics, which recently signed large-scale contracts with Tesla and Apple, begins supplying HBM to NVIDIA, it will be able to regain global semiconductor leadership at once. A market insider predicted, "Samsung Electronics will increase its share of NVIDIA's HBM volume to about 30% centered on HBM4 in the first half of next year."
The 'HBM companionship' between Chairman Chey Tae-won and CEO Huang is also noteworthy. The two, who met at CES in January this year, staged a 'three-party dialogue' scene at the event, depicting a triangular relationship of competition and cooperation. SK Hynix, a strong player in the HBM market, aims to lead the HBM4 era, which will begin in earnest next year.
■Chey Tae-won "APEC Invitation", Jensen Huang "Positive Review"
Chey Tae-won, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who is the chairman and event organizing committee chairman of the APEC CEO Summit, reportedly actively engaged in invitation activities at the site, distributing APEC event brochures to invite American economic giants to Gyeongju in October. Chairman Chey aims to strengthen networks with global companies through the APEC CEO Summit while enhancing the status of Korean companies in the global market. A high-ranking business official said, "Chairman Chey asked CEO Jensen Huang to attend the APEC CEO Summit, and CEO Huang responded positively, saying he would attend if there were no other schedules."
On the American side, David M. Rubenstein, co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, Stephanie Pope, chairman of Boeing, Russell Stokes, chairman of GE Aerospace, and the chairman of Lockheed Martin attended. The market capitalization of these 21 companies in the US alone is about $5.62 trillion (approximately 7,853 trillion won, excluding unlisted companies). Korean business leaders included Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Chairman Chey Tae-won, Chairman Chung Eui-sun of Hyundai Motor, Chairman Koo Kwang-mo of LG, Vice Chairman Kim Sang-hyun of Lotte, Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan of Hanwha, Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun of HD Hyundai, Chairman Huh Tae-soo of GS, Chairman Cho Won-tae of Korean Air, and Chairman Lee Jae-hyun of CJ.
Ryu Jin, Chairman of the Korea Economic Association, emphasized, "Korea plans to make a large-scale investment of $150 billion in the US to open the manufacturing renaissance, and Korea and the US will work together on supply chains, technology, and future talent development in advanced industries such as AI, semiconductors, and bio, as well as strategic industries such as shipbuilding and nuclear power." 
ehcho@fnnews.com Cho Eun-hyo Reporter