Meta’s AI, XR push to gain speed with Korea’s support

South Korea is backing Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., in the Facebook operator’s artificial intelligence and extended reality (XR) push.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged the strong support of the Korean government in fostering Meta’s collaboration with Korean technology firms in AI and metaverse technologies during his meeting with Zuckerberg early Thursday.

At the 30-minute meeting, they discussed their shared vision to create a digital ecosystem for AI and discussed various ways to enhance the partnership between Meta and Korean firms in the areas of AI and metaverse, according to the Korean presidential office.

“Korea is ready to provide the playing field where Meta can turn its imagination into reality,” Yoon was quoted as telling Zuckerberg, citing the country’s memory chip supremacy and aggressive state support of the country's metaverse industry.

Zuckerberg’s meeting with Yoon followed high-profile meetings with the chiefs of LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. the day before.

XR AND AI COLLABORATION WITH LG AND SAMSUNG

At his meeting with LG Electronics’ CEO Cho Joo-wan on Wednesday, the two companies agreed to jointly develop the XR headset that could beat Apple Inc.’s latest mixed reality (MR) headset Vision Pro. They plan to launch it in the first quarter of next year.

They also discussed the application of LG’s content services provided via its smart TV operating system (OS), dubbed webOS, to the upcoming XR headset. Meta will also incorporate its own XR and metaverse expertise into the development of the XR device.

LG Electronics has sold more than 200 million TV sets and is in partnership with about 3,500 content providers.

They also discussed whether to use LG Electronics’ appliances -- about 800 million -- as platforms for Meta’s large language model Llama 3.

CEO Cho also expected great synergy from the two companies’ collaboration in on-device AI technology.

On-device AI enables AI functions within a device even without an internet connection.

After the meeting with LG, Zuckerberg met Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, and they are said to have discussed their collaboration in AI chips.

Meta is striving to develop its own AI chips to ensure the seamless performance of its AI services. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) currently produces Meta’s AI chips.

Samsung Electronics is also considered another strong foundry candidate to produce Meta’s AI chips.

Zuckerberg was said to have spoken highly about Samsung’s foundry capabilities at the meeting with President Yoon, raising hopes for Meta's and Samsung's partnership in AI chip production, sources said.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s second-largest foundry after TSMC, has already produced advanced chips for Qualcomm and Tesla.

MEETING WITH KOREAN AI STARTUPS

Zuckerberg also met with Korean startups in XR and AI technology development during his visit, spurring prospects of Meta's partnership with Korean AI startups. 

On Wednesday, he had a small group meeting with Korean AI and XR startups including Upstage, FriendliAI, Mathpresso, Devs United Games, and Stoic Entertainment.

At the meeting, Zuckerberg was said to have outlined Meta’s technology development plan to the startup CEOs, sources said.

Meta CEO completed his three-day visit to Seoul on Thursday, leaving for India that day. 

Before coming to Korea, he visited Japan to discuss AI collaboration.

Write to Gil-Sung Yang and Eun-Yi Ko at vertigo@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.