Lee Jae-yong on US trip meets Moderna and Verizon CEOs in succession... Signal for global management launch

Discussion on Cooperation in Bio and Next-Generation Mobile Communications

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (left) and Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, are meeting and taking a commemorative photo in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, who embarked on a business trip to the United States for the first time in five years, focused initially on the bio and telecommunications sectors as he resumed global management.

According to industry sources on the 18th, Lee visited the headquarters of Verizon, the world's largest mobile carrier, in New Jersey, USA, on the 17th (local time). There, he met with executives including Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, to discuss cooperation plans in the next-generation mobile communications field. The day before, he met Nuba Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bio and next-generation mobile communications are Samsung's 'future growth businesses' that Lee Jae-yong has decided to focus on through large-scale investments. The fact that he met consecutively with key figures in these fields during his first visit to the U.S. in five years since 2016 is interpreted as his intention to accelerate the discovery and cultivation of future growth engines.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (right) and Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, are posing for a commemorative photo at Verizon headquarters in New Jersey, USA.
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

Verizon is one of Samsung Electronics' major clients. According to Samsung Electronics' recently disclosed quarterly report, Verizon is included among Samsung's top five major customers as of the third quarter of this year. In September last year, Samsung Electronics signed a 5G mobile communication equipment supply contract worth 8 trillion won with Verizon.

Samsung Electronics is currently leading advanced research to secure leadership in the next-generation 6G market based on its technology, which achieved the world's first commercialization of 5G in the telecommunications field.

The meeting between Vice Chairman Lee and Chairman Afeyan took place at the headquarters of Flagship Pioneering, a bio-investment company founded by Afeyan. It is known that they discussed ▲ recent cooperation on the COVID-19 vaccine ▲ and future additional cooperation plans.

Before departing on the 14th, Lee had hinted at the meeting by saying, "I think I will also go to Boston, where Moderna's headquarters is located." Earlier, Samsung Biologics signed a contract with Moderna in May to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines and began production in August. Since last month, vaccines produced by Samsung have been shipped domestically and are being utilized in quarantine sites nationwide.

The business community views this trip as the start of Lee's global efforts to concretize the plans he has been refining. In particular, since Moderna and Verizon are companies recently strengthening business cooperation with Samsung, there is growing interest in whether the areas of collaboration will expand in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.