Lee returns to packed agenda after sealing $950 billion in chip deals abroad

FRANKFURT — President Lee Jae Myung is set to arrive at the Blue House on Monday after 11 days of state visits, which locked in $950 billion in semiconductor deals with Silicon Valley, as well as new critical minerals agreements with Brazil, Chile and Argentina. 

He returns to a full slate of domestic business ranging from real estate policy to the stock market. 

Lee wrapped up his trip with a farewell gathering with Korean expatriates in Frankfurt, a stopover on his way home.

The trip’s highlight was the San Francisco AI Summit on July 24, for which Lee joined the CEOs of Nvidia, Broadcom, OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, to seal $950 billion worth of semiconductor-related cooperation between Korean and global tech firms.

“Korea will leverage its world-class competitiveness and production capacity in memory semiconductors to become an irreplaceable country in the global AI supply chain,” the president said at the summit.

His broader achievement, officials say, was the trust built with Silicon Valley leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and the new supply lines for rare earths and other critical minerals that he secured from the leaders of three South American countries.

During Lee’s state visit to Brazil — the first by a Korean president in 11 years — he and his Brazilian counterpart adopted a joint statement, agreeing to cooperate across the entire supply chain for critical minerals, including rare earths. In Chile, the world’s top copper producer and holder of the largest lithium reserves, Lee signed a memorandum of understanding on a mineral resources partnership to strengthen information sharing, technical cooperation and personnel exchanges related to copper and lithium between the two countries.

With Argentina, which holds the world’s fourth-largest lithium reserves, he signed an MOU to pursue joint projects across the lithium value chain, including exploration and mining. The visit also added Argentine crude to the government’s push to diversify its oil supply sources.

“Our companies imported 880,000 barrels of Argentine crude oil this year on a trial basis, and based on that, we plan to begin regular imports starting next year,” National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in a briefing after the summit. 

Following intensifying protectionism from the U.S.-China trade war, Lee also made progress in expanding Korea’s economic footprint. Meeting in succession with the leaders of Brazil and Argentina, who head Mercosur — the South American trade bloc often called “the European Union of South America” — he agreed to push for the resumption of Korea-Mercosur trade negotiations by December.

With Chile, Korea’s first FTA partner, the two countries agreed to modernize the 22-year-old Korea-Chile FTA to reflect socioeconomic changes, such as AI, and discuss further opening their markets.

Lee reaffirmed his close ties with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, built on their shared working-class backgrounds. With Argentina’s Javier Milei — a right-leaning counterweight to Lula in South American politics whom Lee had never met before — Lee held frank talks that broke through on a double taxation avoidance treaty long sought by Korean companies.

Upon returning to Korea on Monday, the president will go directly to the Blue House to chair a closed-door meeting reviewing real estate policy and the stock market. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, other related Cabinet ministers and presidential office staff are expected to attend. 

BY OH HYUN-SEOK [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]