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Meta’s Zuckerberg Discusses Mixed Reality Devices, AI with LG Leaders in South Korea 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, speaks to journalist after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 27 February 2024 (issued 28 February 2024). (EPA)
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, speaks to journalist after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 27 February 2024 (issued 28 February 2024). (EPA)
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Meta’s Zuckerberg Discusses Mixed Reality Devices, AI with LG Leaders in South Korea 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, speaks to journalist after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 27 February 2024 (issued 28 February 2024). (EPA)
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, speaks to journalist after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 27 February 2024 (issued 28 February 2024). (EPA)

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday met LG Electronics executives to discuss a stronger partnership in extended reality (XR) devices as well as potential cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), LG said.

Zuckerberg arrived in South Korea late on Tuesday and is widely expected to hold talks on AI and meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol and heads of the country's technology powerhouses.

He held discussions with LG Electronics CEO William Cho and parent company LG Corp COO Kwon Bong-seok about business strategy related to next-generation XR device development, LG Electronics said in a statement.

Cho also expressed interest in Meta's large language model-based AI technology and discussed possible on-device AI cooperation, his company said. Cho has previously said LG Electronics is looking for opportunities in XR.

Meta launched its latest mixed-reality headset, Quest 3, in June before rival Apple ramped up competition this month with its Vision Pro device.

It has also been intensifying AI efforts this year including plans for a custom chip and adding AI functions to products.

Zuckerberg is on his first known visit to South Korea in about 10 years. It comes as part of a tour of Asian countries that includes Japan and India, South Korean media reported.

He was due to meet President Yoon as well as Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, said a government source with knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to media.

Zuckerberg is widely expected to discuss AI chip supply and expanding ecosystems for generative AI during his South Korea visit, as Meta seeks to get generative AI technology into its core social media products and hardware devices this year.

Meta plans to deploy into its data centers this year a new version of a custom chip aimed at supporting its AI push, Reuters reported this month. It also plans to secure about 350,000 H100 graphics processing units from leading AI chipmaker Nvidia by end-year to support the push.

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Samsung’s Preliminary Q4 Profit Falls Far Short of Estimates as Chip Issues Drag

Samsung Electronics’ booth is seen during Korea Electronics Show 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Samsung Electronics’ booth is seen during Korea Electronics Show 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Samsung’s Preliminary Q4 Profit Falls Far Short of Estimates as Chip Issues Drag

Samsung Electronics’ booth is seen during Korea Electronics Show 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Samsung Electronics’ booth is seen during Korea Electronics Show 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2024. (Reuters)

Samsung Electronics' preliminary fourth-quarter operating profit missed estimates by a large margin, with the South Korean tech giant hit hard by extra costs as it works towards providing high-end chips to Nvidia.

Its earnings were dented by rising research and development costs and the ramp-up of manufacturing capacity for advanced semiconductors, the company said in a statement. Slowing demand for conventional memory chips used in PCs and mobile phones also weighed on earnings, it added.

The world's largest memory chip, smartphone and TV maker expects to log an operating profit of 6.5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, well below an LSEG SmartEstimate of 7.7 trillion won.

The expected profit is 131% higher than the same period a year earlier, but down 29% from a disappointing third quarter. Preliminary revenue came in at 75 trillion won, slightly lower than analysts' estimates.

Rival SK Hynix is Nvidia's main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence graphics processing units (GPUs) whereas Samsung has struggled to meet Nvidia's requirements.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday that Samsung has to "engineer a new design" to supply HBM chips to his company, adding that "they can do it and they are working very fast," Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Samsung said at the time of its third-quarter earnings that it was making progress in supplying HBM chips to Nvidia but has not made any public updates since then.

Greg Noh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, said Samsung's profit was possibly eroded by one-off costs as well as disappointing chip and display earnings.

Samsung finished 3.4% higher with analysts attributing the gain to the sense that the company's woes had already been factored in and were unlikely to get worse.

"There are concerns about Samsung's major businesses continuing to lose competitiveness. But chip demand may have bottomed already," said Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities, adding that smartphone demand in China may gradually improve.

Shares of Samsung, South Korea's biggest company by market value, slumped 32% last year, far more than a 10% decline for the wider market.

By contrast, SK Hynix is expected to post record earnings for the fourth quarter and its stock surged 23% last year.

Samsung will release detailed fourth-quarter results on Jan. 31.

RISING COMPETITION

Samsung said fourth-quarter earnings also fell for its division that designs and manufactures logic chips, hit by slower mobile phone demand, lower utilization rates at its factories and higher research and development costs.

The division may have widened losses to about $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter from about $960 million in the preceding quarter due to struggles to increase production yields, analysts said.

Earnings for its devices business, which includes mobile phones, TVs and household appliances, dropped as it has been some time since new mobile phone models were launched and because competition has increased, Samsung said.

Analysts said its mobile division earnings may have declined year on year due to lower sales for its premium foldable phones.

Slowing demand likely offset the positive impact of weakness in the local currency which boosts earnings from overseas.

The South Korean won dropped to its weakest level in 15 years in December after President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree triggered political turmoil. It was also hurt by US President-elect Donald Trump's pledges of higher tariffs on imports.