President Lee Jae Myung has secured investment pledges from the heads of global companies to grow South Korea's cutting-edge sectors, including artificial intelligence(AI).
The presidential office announced Wednesday that Lee and the CEOs of seven global firms, including Amazon Web Services, had inked a partnership outlining a planned investment of 9 billion U.S. dollars over the next five years.
Additional parties to the pledge include Renault, Amkor Technology, Corning, Air Liquide, Siemens Healthineers, and Umicore, who will invest across sectors including AI data centers, semiconductor packaging, electric vehicles, displays, health care equipment and batteries.
AWS CEO Matt Garman, who also met separately with Lee, announced plans to invest at least five billion dollars in projects, including the construction of new AI data centers in Incheon and parts of Gyeonggi Province by 2031.
During an event at the Gyeongju Arts Center on Wednesday morning, Lee emphasized his administration's goal of making South Korea one of the world's top three AI powerhouses and said the additional investment would accelerate the development of the nation's technological ecosystem.