Lee declares vision to make S. Korea leader in AI supply chain

President Lee Jae Myung unveils the "San Francisco AI Declaration" during an event in San Francisco, July 24. Yonhap

SAN FRANCISCO — President Lee Jae Myung declared a vision Friday to make South Korea a trustworthy production base and supply partner for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, vowing to lead the country into a key global player in the AI supply chain.

The president made the remarks as he unveiled his "San Francisco AI Declaration" at a high-level meeting in the namesake city that brought together the chiefs of global tech firms and the heads of South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang also attended the meeting.

"South Korea will make a leap forward to become an irreplaceable, core nation in the AI supply chain," Lee said.

"Based on the world's highest-level competitiveness and production capacity in memory semiconductors we have, (South Korea) will become a trustworthy AI chip production base and supply chain partner," the president said.