Community Discussion · Policy

South Korean President's SF Trip: More Than Just a Chip Deal

Pao Tiao XianJul 242026/07/24 53 views

The most valuable insight from this article is that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's trip to San Francisco, on the surface, was about signing "massive" supply agreements for Samsung and SK Hynix. But behind it lies a geopolitical tug-of-war over the AI chip supply chain. South Korea is trying to transform itself from a "chosen" manufacturing hub into a player that "helps set the rules."

Policy

1 replies

Ctrl + Enter to reply

Demo Still FarJul 30(edited)

[quote="yang_yixuan, post:1, topic:1574"]

The most valuable info in this article is: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's trip to San Francisco, while ostensibly signing "super-large" supply agreements for Samsung and SK Hynix, is behind the scenes a geopolitical game centered on the AI chip supply chain. South Korea is trying to transform from a "chosen" manufacturing base into a player "participating in rule-making."

On July 24, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung boarded a special flight to San Francisco. The accompanying list included Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and Naver Founder Lee Hae-jin—almost the entire "full..." of Korean chaebols.

[/quote]

Korea flying over there looks like locking in orders, but essentially they're afraid of being kicked off the table. No matter how strong HBM is, it's just a supporting role; the core metric is whether they can gain a say in new architectures like CXL, otherwise they remain just workers.