新世界集团主席出席美国Foundry School启动仪式，AI数据中心合作被作为韩美AI供应链案例提及

WASHINGTON — Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin attended the launch of Foundry School, a manufacturing and advanced-industry talent program led by the U.S. State Department, and discussed ways to strengthen artificial intelligence supply chains with global political and business leaders. The AI data center venture Shinsegae Group is pursuing with U.S. AI company Reflection AI was highlighted as a key example of Korea-U.S. cooperation on AI supply chains.
Chung attended the Foundry School launch ceremony on the morning of the 3rd at the Trump Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C., Shinsegae Group said on the 4th. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg were among the U.S. political figures in attendance. Executives from major AI and semiconductor companies also took part, including Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson. Chung attended at the invitation of Vance and the State Department.
Foundry School is a manufacturing and advanced-industry talent project the State Department is pursuing with Stanford University. It aims to link government, industry and academia to pass on the know-how and strategies of innovative companies to future generations and to cultivate entrepreneurs, engineers and leaders in advanced manufacturing. The project is one of the action strategies for Pax Silica, a multilateral economic security forum launched under U.S. leadership last December. Through Pax Silica, Washington intends to realign supply chains for core technologies including semiconductors, AI, advanced manufacturing and energy around trusted allies.
Speaking at the event, Vance said Foundry School would give opportunities to the next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers and show them that they have a future. Rubio said the three pillars of universities, industry and government must move together to achieve the goal of reindustrialization, adding that Foundry School would be a long-term project.
Against the backdrop of this U.S. plan to realign AI supply chains, the partnership between Shinsegae Group and Reflection AI is drawing attention. Shinsegae Group signed a partnership with Reflection AI in March for a large-scale AI data center project in South Korea and is now working on setting up a joint venture and selecting a site. The two companies' AI data center collaboration is regarded as the first project under the State Department's AI export program, which aims to spread trusted AI globally.
Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs who hosted the event, told Chung that the partnership between Shinsegae Group and Reflection AI is an important milestone for Korea-U.S. cooperation in advanced industries, and called Chung a solid partner in the AI supply chain alliance.
Reflection AI founder and CEO Misha Laskin, who spoke as a panelist at a session that day, also cited the collaboration with Shinsegae Group as an example of the Korea-U.S. partnership. He said the collaboration with Shinsegae Group under Chung's leadership demonstrates a solid Korea-U.S. partnership and serves as a good example of how the United States and its allies can actually work together. Strengthening partnerships with allies, he added, can accelerate technological innovation and drive economic development worldwide.
"Successfully leading an advanced-industry supply chain alliance centered on the United States is the task of our times," Chung said. "If Korea and the United States join forces, they can create even greater synergy." He added that talent is essential for advanced industries such as AI to develop, and said Shinsegae Group would gather and nurture talent through relentless creative innovation.