Meta's Zuckerberg discusses mixed reality devices, AI with LG leaders in South Korea

FILE PHOTO: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a speech, as the letters AI for artificial intelligence appear on screen, at the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

SEOUL (Reuters) -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 authorised 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 centres 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.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Cushing)