Shinsegae chairman joins US AI supply chain push in Washington
Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin, far left, poses with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg, center, and Reflection AI CEO Misha Laskin during an event in Washington, D.C., Thursday (local time). Courtesy of Shinsegae Group
Chung Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group, joined U.S. political and technology leaders Thursday in Washington for the launch of Foundry School, a workforce initiative aimed at strengthening advanced manufacturing and technology supply chains.
Chung attended the event at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace at the invitation of Vice President JD Vance and the U.S. Department of State.
Foundry School is a U.S.-led program developed with Stanford University to train entrepreneurs, engineers and advanced manufacturing leaders for strategic industries.
The initiative is part of Pax Silica, a U.S.-led economic security partnership focused on strengthening supply chains supporting artificial intelligence (AI) and other strategic technologies.
Jacob Helberg, U.S. under secretary of state for economic affairs, said Shinsegae’s partnership with Reflection AI represented an important milestone in Korea-U.S. cooperation in advanced industries.
Helberg said Chung was a strong partner in efforts to build trusted AI supply chains among allies.
Chung’s participation came as Shinsegae Group works with Reflection AI on an AI data center project in Korea.
The companies signed a partnership in March and are working on establishing a joint venture and selecting a site for the facility, according to Shinsegae Group.
Misha Laskin, CEO and co-founder of Reflection AI, also spoke at Thursday’s event and thanked Chung during a panel discussion.
Laskin said the partnership between Shinsegae and Reflection AI demonstrated how Korea and the United States could work together to advance technology and economic growth.
The launch brought together senior U.S. officials and executives from technology and semiconductor companies, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson.
Chung said Korea and the United States could create greater synergy by working together and that Shinsegae would continue to recruit and develop workers through creative innovation.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.