Visiting Seattle, USA, a Startup Hub Attracting Global Big Tech Companies for Benchmarking
Visiting Boeing, a Digital Transformation Excellence Case, and Microsoft, a Global Digital Company
Pohang City visited Seattle, a global big tech hub cluster in the United States, from the 5th to the 6th to benchmark excellent cases of startup entrepreneurship ecosystems and establish a Pohang-style digital ecosystem.
The Pohang City delegation visiting the Seattle Microsoft (MS) headquarters to benchmark excellent cases of the startup ecosystem is taking a commemorative photo with Chairman Ahn Hye-seon of Changbal (second from the left). Photo by Pohang City
The Pohang delegation, visiting the U.S. to attend CES 2025, toured Seattle, known as the second Silicon Valley, visiting major facilities of big tech companies such as Boeing, Microsoft headquarters, and Amazon headquarters to explore ways to apply these to Pohang.
On the 6th, the delegation visited Boeing’s aircraft factory, one of the top three aerospace companies in the U.S. and a global best practice in digital transformation (DX) of aircraft manufacturing processes, to observe firsthand the future of Pohang’s key initiatives in smart factory projects and manufacturing process digital transformation.
They also recognized that smart manufacturing in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is no longer optional but essential, sharing strategies for successful Pohang-style smart factory construction aimed at productivity improvement, quality enhancement, and cost reduction.
A Boeing representative introduced Boeing’s big data, manufacturing platform, and digital twin simulation systems, explaining, “Smart factories are not just about adopting technology but are essential projects to strengthen corporate competitiveness. Smart factory innovation based on AI technology will open a new future for manufacturing.”
On the same day, the delegation visited the headquarters of Microsoft (MS), a global digital and IT company, meeting with Im Heon-min, MS Chief Technology Officer, and Ahn Hye-seon, MS software engineer and president of ‘Changbal,’ a Seattle-based Korean IT nonprofit organization, to learn about MS’s unique innovation strategies to lead the AI industry.
MS is leading industries and daily life by making remarkable advances in AI across various fields beyond text generation, including multimodal, advanced reasoning, and video generation, maintaining its global market leadership through aggressive AI R&D investment.
Im Heon-min, MS Chief Technology Officer, said, “Pohang has great potential to grow as a digital industry mecca where AI and big data are important,” adding, “If we create and support business growth momentum based on rapidly evolving AI technologies like MS, local companies can achieve greater leaps.”
The delegation then visited Amazon headquarters, a global big tech company known for AI technology-based cloud platforms and innovation, as well as ‘Amazon Go,’ the world’s first advanced automated grocery store near the headquarters that utilizes the latest IT technologies.
At ‘Amazon Go,’ they observed the AI-based unmanned purchasing mechanism that leads the future market using an app integrated with machine learning and computer vision, exploring various expansion possibilities of the AI industry, which Pohang is nurturing as a future new growth industry.
Kim Jeong-pyo, Director of the Digital Convergence Industry Division, said, “Seattle is a big tech hub cluster city where global unicorn companies continuously emerge,” adding, “We will apply Seattle’s growth strategy of attracting companies and fostering startups to Pohang to build a startup ecosystem that can elevate Pohang’s focus on digital industries to the next level.”
The delegation moved to Las Vegas on the evening of the 6th to participate in ‘CES 2025,’ the world’s largest IT and digital expo held for four days from the 7th to the 10th.
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