With less than 40 days until the 2025 APEC CEO Summit, the expectation is that Gyeongju will become the meeting place for some of the leading tech figures of the world to share their views on the future of the global economy. The summit, which will take place October 28-31 and will be chaired by Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Chey Tae-won, has so far attracted almost 900 CEOs and aims to bring together about 1,700 business leaders and officials from the Asia-Pacific region.
The person most anticipated to headline the list of speakers is Jensen Huang of Nvidia, whose attendance, although not officially confirmed, appears to be almost a fact. At a Korea-U.S. roundtable held in Washington, D.C., Chey made a personal request, and the response was very positive. According to the report, a session on artificial intelligence at the summit, with Huang leading it on the final day, is being planned by organizers. In case of his presence, it is possible that there will be visits to Samsung and SK Hynix semiconductor facilities in South Korea, along with meetings with the political leaders. This can be seen as a move to highlight the importance of Nvidia’s AI accelerators in the country.
In addition, the presence of Sam Altman from OpenAI, who has been intensifying relations with Korean technology companies, is also anticipated. A strategic partnership with Kakao and the opening of an office in Seoul are examples of the engagements, that is, in addition to Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Jane Fraser from Citigroup, Alibaba’s Eddie Wu, and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew. Given such a constellation of tech powerhouses, the summit might facilitate a high-stakes platform where AI, innovation, and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region can be debated.
