Lee Jae-yong on US Trip: "I Have to Work Hard"... Silent on Meeting with Jensen Huang

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong returned on the 13th after about two weeks of business trips to the United States and left a brief comment saying, "I will work hard." He did not respond to questions about whether he met Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, during the trip. Given that he met major clients such as Amazon, Meta, and Qualcomm, expectations for additional foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) orders were high.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is returning to Korea on the afternoon of the 13th through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center (SGBAC) in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, after a two-week business trip to the United States. During his trip, Chairman Lee held a private meeting at the home of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and consecutively met with CEOs of major big tech companies in the IT, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductor sectors to explore ways to strengthen cooperation. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

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Chairman Lee returned at 7:37 p.m. that day through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center (SGBAC) in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, and when asked by reporters about the results of the trip, he briefly replied, "I will work hard. Thank you for your efforts." He entered alone wearing a navy suit without a tie and carrying no belongings such as a bag. Executives including Jeon Young-hyun, head of the DS (semiconductor) division, were not seen. They are known to have stayed in the U.S. to continue client sales activities.

Chairman Lee did not answer when asked if he met Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. He also did not respond to questions about foundry achievements and left in a black car.

Samsung emphasized that during the two-week trip, Chairman Lee met with major big-tech clients such as Meta, Amazon, Qualcomm, and Verizon. As the world's number one memory semiconductor company, this means that Chairman Lee made every effort to supply these companies. Especially in the meeting with Amazon, the world's number one cloud service company that has been actively engaged in the generative AI business since April last year, DS division executives including Jeon Young-hyun also attended to fully focus on sales.

According to industry sources, during his U.S. trip, Chairman Lee met with global fabless company AMD to discuss sales related to the 3nm (1nm = one billionth of a meter) Gate-All-Around (GAA) process foundry. Since AMD CEO Lisa Su recently announced plans for mass production of next-generation chips using the 3nm GAA process, the possibility of a meeting between the two sides is high. Samsung stated, "We met consecutively with global fabless system semiconductor companies to discuss expanding foundry business cooperation and manufacturing technology innovation for future semiconductor development." The names of the global fabless system semiconductor companies were not disclosed.

Chairman Lee's U.S. trip can be summarized as "AI semiconductor sales." In the first week, he met Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, and political figures in the U.S. East Coast (New York, Washington). In the second week, he met CEOs of major big-tech companies in IT, AI, and semiconductor fields. A Samsung Electronics official explained, "We sought business strategies that combine the technological competitiveness of Samsung and our clients in advanced fields such as AI to create mutual win-win outcomes."

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics plans to hold a "Global Strategy Meeting" later this month, attended by key executives from the set (DX) and component (DS) divisions as well as heads of overseas subsidiaries. It is highly likely to be held in the last week of this month (24th to 28th). Han Jong-hee, head of the DX division and vice chairman, and Jeon Young-hyun, head of the DS division, will preside over their respective division meetings. An industry insider said, "The global network Chairman Lee built during his U.S. trip and the comprehensive cooperation efforts with big-tech companies will evolve into concrete visions and business plans through the meeting, serving as a catalyst for overcoming crises and making a new leap forward."

Over the past three years, Chairman Lee has met with CEOs of Moderna, Verizon, Intel, Tesla, Nvidia, Biogen, Zeiss, and ASML, focusing on discussing future business directions. He has also frequently met with AI scholars and related company CEOs. The biggest challenge for Samsung Electronics' DS division is to pass Nvidia's quality test for the latest HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) semiconductor product HBM3E in the memory field and achieve order results. In the foundry field, there remains the task of securing contracts with prominent clients met during this trip, including Amazon, Qualcomm, and Meta, and increasing market share.

On the 12th (local time), Samsung Electronics held the "Foundry Forum 2024" in Silicon Valley and revealed its foundry business vision. Samsung stated that the plan for mass production of 1.4nm in 2027 is progressing smoothly and that it will enhance its core competitiveness in GAA technology. It also announced plans to introduce innovative technologies such as Backside Power Delivery Network (BSPDN) technology in the 2nm process in 2027. BSPDN is a technology that places current wiring layers on the back of the wafer to improve bottlenecks in power and signal lines.

After completing the trip, Chairman Lee emphasized, "Let's pioneer the future in a Samsung way by leveraging Samsung's strengths."

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