August 15, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s top conglomerate leaders will join President Lee Jae Myung on a US visit next week for his summit with US President Donald Trump, aiming to promote major investments in strategic sectors including semiconductors, batteries, automobiles and shipbuilding, according to industry sources Thursday.
The Aug. 24-26 trip will feature four chaebol heads — Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo — along with executives from leading shipbuilding, aviation and defense firms.
The delegation will be tightly focused on the Aug. 25 White House summit, with the government assembling a compact, high-impact team capable of announcing significant US investments.
Samsung is operating and building foundry plants worth $37 billion in Austin and Taylor, Texas, while SK hynix is investing $3.87 billion in an advanced packaging plant for its cutting-edge high bandwidth memory chips in Indiana. Hyundai’s Chung met Trump in March, pledging $21 billion in new US projects, including a steel plant.
LG Energy Solution is also investing about 30 trillion won ($21.7 billion) across the US, including a 7-trillion-won facility in Arizona.
The four chaebol groups are expected to discuss semiconductor expansion and AI chip partnerships, as well as electric vehicle and battery production growth, and Inflation Reduction Act subsidies, during the visit.
Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan and HD Hyundai Senior Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun, who are part of the delegation, are also expected to announce new deals as their companies are both central to the Korea-US shipbuilding cooperation initiative known as the MASGA project.
Hanwha acquired Philly Shipyard last year, while HD Hyundai secured a US Navy maintenance contract.
Korean Air Chairman Cho Won-tae, traveling with the delegation, recently signed $32.7 billion in supply agreements with Boeing and GE Aerospace.
Ahead of the departure, the president will meet the delegation to review each company’s investment pledges, tailoring the “Korea Sales” campaign to appeal to Trump’s preference for favorable reciprocal deals, sources say.
“The summit agenda is expected to cover economic cooperation in manufacturing, advanced technology and key minerals, with an aim to further strengthen the bilateral economic security partnership,” Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.
herim@heraldcorp.com
