Korea was a key market for NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even in the company’s early days. He famously visited Yongsan Electronics Market several times in the 1990s to promote NVIDIA graphics cards. Huang had not returned to Korea for 15 years after rising to prominence in artificial intelligence. He is scheduled to attend the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju from Oct. 28 to 31.
Held alongside the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, the summit will gather about 1,700 executives from global AI, energy, mobility, biotechnology, and finance companies. Huang is expected to draw the most attention, presenting NVIDIA’s vision in a keynote and discussion on Oct. 31. Observers are watching whether he will meet Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss high-bandwidth memory supply and AI collaboration.
Other global tech leaders are also expected, including SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son, who leads the 700 trillion-won StarGate AI infrastructure project, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Top executives from Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, along with leaders from Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, CATL, SinoChem, and Hitachi, will attend. International figures including IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva are also expected.
The summit provides Korean companies a key platform to showcase themselves. The “Future Tech Forum” will highlight the competitiveness of Korea’s core industries, including AI, shipbuilding, defense, and energy. Samsung will unveil the world’s first foldable “trifold” smartphone, showcasing Korean technology to a global audience. One-on-one meetings with global CEOs and leaders will offer opportunities for investment and collaboration.
Twenty years ago, the Busan APEC summit marked South Korea’s return to the global stage as an IT powerhouse following the foreign exchange crisis. At the Gyeongju meeting, South Korea aims to showcase its world-class standing in advanced technologies, including AI, and in soft power, such as K-culture, following domestic political stabilization. The summit’s economic impact is projected at about 7.4 trillion won, with 22,000 jobs expected to be created. Government and private-sector officials are working together to ensure preparations are complete for this historic opportunity to boost South Korea’s economic standing.
