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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung shake hands for a photo at an AI summit held in San Francisco on July 24, 2026. From left to right are OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. (Yonhap)

Samsung Electronics and SK Group on Friday announced plans for a combined US$950 billion in semiconductor cooperation with major US tech companies like Nvidia and Broadcom, taking advantage of President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco.

Lee that day introduced the San Francisco AI Declaration at an AI summit in the city hosted by the Korean government. 

“Building on our world-class competitiveness and production know-how in memory semiconductors, we will emerge as a reliable supply chain partner and production hub for AI chips,” the Korean president said. 

At the event, Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding worth up to US$200 billion with American chipmaker Broadcom on cooperation in the supply of advanced memory chips and foundry services for AI chip output over the next five years. 

SK Group concluded deals worth a combined US$750 billion on long-term supply partnerships for such semiconductors with Nvidia and others, also over five years.

“Nvidia, Broadcom and others have placed advance memory orders and signed long-term contracts to buy this amount over the next five years,” said Kim Yong-beom, the Blue House director of policy, at a news briefing there. “This will help ensure stable chip production at our companies.”

In addition, Korean internet portal giant Naver will build an AI plant for US$10 billion with investments from Nvidia and global asset manager Brookfield. Hyundai Motor Group and Nvidia will also jointly set up a “robot reference platform” to develop and test AI robots.

Kim Hyeong-joon, the head of the Korea-based Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Foundation, hailed the agreements reached in San Francisco. 

“Through long-term contracts with US Big Tech firms, our companies can keep expanding their semiconductor plants and raise the potential for the semiconductor industry’s sustainable growth,” the expert said. 

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter; Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter

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