Arrival at LG Twin Towers... Meeting with Cho Joo-wan, President of LG Electronics
Discussion on AI Business Expected
Silent on Questions about Korean AI Semiconductors
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, who visited Korea for the first time in 10 years, came to LG on the 28th to meet Cho Joo-wan, CEO of LG Electronics. After discussing ways to secure leadership in the artificial intelligence (AI) business, he is scheduled to meet with Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics.
On the day, Zuckerberg entered the underground parking lot of the LG Twin Towers East Building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul at 12:23 PM. Although he was expected to arrive around 11:15 AM, he was about an hour late. On-site, there was speculation that he might have been attending a meeting with representatives from more than five extended reality (XR) startups at Meta Korea’s headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul.
When asked, "What kind of business cooperation is planned with LG?" and "What do you think about Korean AI semiconductors?" Zuckerberg did not respond and moved to the VIP-only elevator. His lip movements appeared to say "Hi, There," but he did not speak.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, entering the underground parking lot of the LG Twin Towers East Building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul at 12:23 PM on the 28th. [Photo by Moon Chae-seok]
Zuckerberg is expected to discuss with CEO Cho and others ways to link LG Electronics’ smart TV platform webOS with Meta’s XR platform. If the discussions progress, collaboration between Meta and LG affiliates such as LG Display and LG Innotek is also expected to expand.
Last July, LG Electronics announced 'Vision 2030,' which focuses on transforming from a simple hardware manufacturer to a 'media & entertainment platform company.' They are promoting various businesses incorporated into their smart TV platform webOS.
Meta is currently advancing its large language model (LLM) 'LLaMA 3' business to strengthen competitiveness against Microsoft (MS·GPT), Google (Gemini), and Amazon Web Services (Olympus). Various business strategies will be discussed to create synergy between LG Electronics’ webOS, premium home appliances, and LLaMA 3.
Discussions on mixed reality (MR) and XR headsets were also held. MR is a headset that combines the advantages of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Meta has released the MR headset series ‘Quest.’ However, with Apple launching the Vision Pro XR headset priced around 4 million won, Meta faces increasing pressure to release new products to compete with Apple and Google camps. LG Electronics is responsible for designing and manufacturing Meta Quest.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, entering the underground parking lot of the LG Twin Towers East Building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul at 12:23 PM on the 28th. [Photo by Moon Chae-seok]
Meta’s goal is to release an XR headset that surpasses Apple’s 'Vision Pro.' It is expected to be launched as early as the first half of next year.
Zuckerberg is also scheduled to have a consecutive meeting with Chairman Lee in the afternoon, with a high possibility of a dinner meeting. The specific time and location of the meeting have not been disclosed.
Zuckerberg is expected to discuss LLaMA-related business with Chairman Lee as well. For Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor (DS) division foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business, this is an opportunity to negotiate chip contract manufacturing orders from a major client like Meta or establish strategic cooperation of similar scale.
Meta’s goal is to build an ecosystem for artificial general intelligence (AGI) technology with human-level or higher intelligence. To achieve this, Meta is constructing an $800 million AI data center in Indiana, USA. Meta plans to secure an additional 350,000 Nvidia GPU H100 units within this year. Securing high-quality AI semiconductor chips is a critical priority.
Zuckerberg will also have an AI-related meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol the following day. The day before, he met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to discuss AI cooperation measures. It is expected that President Yoon will express the government’s intention to increase investment in advanced technology sectors such as AI semiconductors during the meeting with Zuckerberg and request collaboration with domestic companies.
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