Lee Won-taek, governor-elect of North Jeolla Special Self-Governing Province, has proposed discussing investment in Saemangeum to Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang.
The transition committee for the ninth popularly elected governor of North Jeolla said Thursday that Lee recently sent a personal letter to Nvidia's U.S. headquarters and the head of Nvidia Korea conveying this message.
The letter follows recent remarks by CEO Jensen Huang, who mentioned Saemangeum as a potential investment opportunity during his visit to South Korea.
In the letter, Lee described Saemangeum as a "perfect blank slate" with virtually no regulations, emphasizing that it is "an investment destination with the frictionless environment, scalability, and speed that Nvidia requires."
He cited Saemangeum's strengths as the clean energy and abundant industrial water needed to build next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, along with a regulatory sandbox where physical AI and robotics technologies can be tested. He explained that the region offers investment conditions comparable to those of Arizona in the United States and Oxagon in Saudi Arabia.
"Rather than a formal presentation, let's have a candid conversation over samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly)," Lee said, proposing direct discussions on developing Saemangeum into a global AI valley.
"I will go anywhere in the world for the development of North Jeolla," he added. "I will mobilize all our capabilities so that a world-class company like Nvidia can put down roots in Saemangeum."
