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South Korea business heavyweights including Korean Air and Hyundai unveiled multibillion deals in the United States on Monday, following the summit between the two countries’ leaders in Washington, DC.
At least four Korean conglomerates have announced deals and investment plans worth tens of billions of dollars, such as plans by the country’s top airliner Korean Air to spend $50 billion on aircraft and engine orders from Boeing and others.
South Korean businesses are expected to invest a total of $150 billion in the US, according to President Lee Jae Myung’s office.
Lee concluded his first summit with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, which came after Seoul scrambled to secure a last-minute tariff deal to avert 25% tariffs on Korean exports to the US.
At the time, the two sides agreed to a reduced 15% tariffs on Korean goods, and a $350 billion investment flow from Korea to the US, earmarked for shipbuilding, as well as spending on semiconductors, secondary batteries, biologics and energy.
It is unclear whether the $150 billion worth of deals announced this week would be part of that total.
Traveling alongside Lee was a bevy of business executives from some of South Korea’s top conglomerates, including CEOs of Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, LG and Korean Air, who attended a South Korea-US business round table after the summit. Executives from 21 American business, including Nvidia, OpenAI, IBM, Google, Boeing and General Motors, also took part.
“To create manufacturing business renaissance, where both countries can win, let’s advance our cooperations in strategic industry including shipbuilding and nuclear and high-tech industry including semiconductor, AI and bio to enhance global competitiveness,” Lee said in a statement on Monday.
For the $50 billion deal, Korean Air said it intends to purchase 103 aircraft from Boeing, along with engines and a maintenance program from GE Aerospace and CFM International, it said in a statement.
The aircraft purchase order includes 20 Boeing 777-9s, 25 Boeing 787-10s, 50 Boeing 737-10s, and eight Boeing 777-8F freighters, which will be delivered in phases, it added.
Hyundai Motor Group, meanwhile, said it would add an extra $5 billion to the $21 billion in US investment it announced in March.
The conglomerate, which own automakers Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, wants to expand its automobile and parts production in the US. Some of the money will also be used to build a new steel mill in Louisiana and a state-of-the-art robotics facility, according to a statement.
The total investment, from 2025 to 2028, is expected to create 25,000 direct jobs, it said.
During the roundtable on Monday, South Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corporation also signed a purchase agreement to buy 3.3 million additional tons of liquefied natural gas from the US every year for a decade starting in 2028, the country’s official news agency Yonhap reported.
Samsung Heavy Industries, a major shipbuilder in South Korea, said it has signed a strategic partnership with the Oregon-based Vigor Marine Group to cooperate on maintenance, repair and overhaul US Navy support ships, Yonhap reported separately on Tuesday.
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