Jo Joo-wan, President of LG Electronics, "XR Device Developed with Meta to be Commercialized Next Year" (Comprehensive)

First Meeting Between Merck and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the 28th
"XR Devices to be Commercialized Next Year... Product Concept Established"
"Meta AI to be Applied to 500 Million LG Electronics Devices"

Jo Joo-wan, CEO of LG Electronics, announced on the 28th that "an extended reality (XR) device developed in collaboration with Meta will be commercialized next year."

Jo made this statement to reporters shortly after meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at around 2:20 p.m. that day. Zuckerberg arrived at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul at 12:23 p.m. He then discussed generative AI business and XR device business with Jo for about an hour and a half.

Jo said, "It will be next year before we can commercialize the XR device developed in cooperation with Meta," adding, "We have established the product concept and are currently developing it." He further noted, "We discussed whether it is better to release it quickly or to release it properly."

On the same day, Jo also discussed generative AI with Meta. They talked about applying the large language model (LLM) 'LLaMA 3' to LG Electronics devices, which number around 500 million worldwide.

Jo stated, "Considering Meta's language model and our devices, including over 500 million Internet of Things (IoT) devices, how to quickly apply AI and how to innovatively improve customer experience upon application, the scope of cooperation between the two companies is very broad."

Jo Joo-wan, CEO of LG Electronics, is seen speaking at a press conference held after meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, at the LG Twin Towers in Yeongdeungpo, Yeouido-gu, Seoul, around 2:20 PM on the 28th.
[Photo by Moon Chae-seok]

Park Hyung-se, Head of the HE (Home Entertainment) Business Division, who accompanied Jo, did not specifically mention collaboration between LG’s smart TV platform 'webOS' and Meta.

Park said, "We discussed with Zuckerberg how to implement media content in virtual reality (VR)," adding, "Whether it will be webOS or another method, we agreed to continue content partnership collaboration."

Park also said, "Zuckerberg was surprised that LG Electronics sells over 200 million TVs and that the user base is so large," and "He was also amazed that we work with more than 3,500 content providers and spoke very positively about media content partnership collaboration with LG Electronics."

Zuckerberg left at around 2:15 p.m. and did not respond to questions about "how today's meeting with CEO Jo went" before departing.

Park Hyung-se, President and Head of LG Electronics HE (Home Entertainment) Business Division, speaks at a press conference held after meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, at around 2:20 PM on the 28th at LG Twin Towers, Yeongdeungpo, Yeouido-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Moon Chae-seok]

Zuckerberg visited Korea for the first time in 10 years. Following his meeting with Jo, he is scheduled to meet Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. There is a high possibility of a dinner meeting. The specific time and place of the meeting have not been disclosed.

Zuckerberg is also expected to discuss LLaMA-related business with Chairman Lee. From the perspective of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor (DS) division’s foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business, this is an opportunity to negotiate chip contract manufacturing orders with a major client like Meta or to establish a strategic collaboration 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.