During the early days when NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang was still in the 'sapling' stage, South Korea was a major client. It is well-known that he visited Yongsan Electronics Market several times in the 1990s to promote his company's graphics cards during its early days. After growing into an AI 'giant', CEO Huang, who had not visited South Korea for 15 years, will return to attend the 'Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit' in Gyeongju from the 28th to the 31st.

The 'APEC CEO Summit', held as a side event of the APEC Summit, will gather over 1,700 global business leaders in AI, energy, mobility, bio, and finance. The most anticipated figure is CEO Huang. He is expected to share NVIDIA's vision through a keynote speech and a roundtable on the 31st. There is interest in whether he will discuss enhancing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply and AI cooperation with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

Besides CEO Huang, other global tech industry giants will also be in attendance. Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank Group, who is leading the KRW 700 trillion AI infrastructure project 'Stargate Project', and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, are expected to attend. Top executives from major tech companies such as Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as Google, Meta, and Microsoft, have confirmed their visits to South Korea. CEOs of global companies like Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, CATL, Sinochem, and Hitachi, along with international organization figures such as Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will also gather in Gyeongju.

The CEO Summit is anticipated to be an excellent promotional stage for South Korean companies. During the event, the 'Future Tech Forum' will showcase the competitiveness of South Korea's key industries, including AI, shipbuilding and defense, and energy. Samsung Electronics will unveil its 'Tri-Fold' smartphone for the first time, demonstrating South Korea's technological prowess to the world. It will also be an opportunity to explore investment and cooperation through one-on-one meetings with global CEOs and leaders.

Twenty years ago, through the Busan APEC Summit, South Korea declared its successful recovery from the financial crisis and its return to the global economic stage as an IT powerhouse. At the Gyeongju APEC meeting, South Korea must convincingly demonstrate its rise to the top tier in advanced technologies like AI and soft power such as the Korean Wave. The economic impact of this meeting is projected to reach approximately KRW 7.4 trillion, with job creation expected to reach 22,000. It is crucial for both the public and private sectors to unite and make every effort in preparation to ensure this becomes a historic turning point that elevates the nation's economic stature.

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