South Korea's Samsung, Hyundai Motor Hold First Large-Scale Spousal Exchange of 170 Executives, Expanding Cooperation in Automotive Chips and Robots
By Google News Motors ·
Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group are holding their first large-scale exchange event, drawing a large contingent of senior executives from both sides.
The gathering is meant to elevate cooperation in automotive semiconductors, batteries and robotics, and is seen as a signal that the two groups—once competitors that pushed into each other's core businesses—are redefining their relationship as supply-chain partners.
Samsung Electronics will host the "Appreciation Day" event on the afternoon of the 9th at "The Universe," its training center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, inviting key executives and officers from Hyundai Motor and Kia.
The event will be co-hosted by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun and Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Jang Jae-hoon, and about 170 people are expected to attend, including the presidents of both companies' affiliates and their spouses.
Representing Samsung will be Vice Chairman Jun, along with Samsung Electronics CEOs Noh Tae-moon, Samsung SDI CEO Choi Joo-sun, Samsung Electro-Mechanics CEO Jang Duck-hyun and Samsung Display CEO Lee Cheong. From Hyundai Motor Group, Vice Chairman Jang, Hyundai Motor President and CEO José Muñoz and Hyundai and Kia R&D Division President Manfred Harrer are expected to attend.
Attendance by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung had initially been discussed, but both chairmen will reportedly be absent due to Lee's overseas business trip.
The event is largely social in nature, featuring performances and a dinner. Samsung Electronics has previously invited multiple partner companies to networking events, but this is the first time it has invited the executives of a specific company together with their spouses. Samsung Electronics reportedly proposed the event to Hyundai Motor Group first.
Relations between the two groups were once frosty. The former Hyundai Group established Hyundai Electronics in 1983 and entered the semiconductor business, acquiring LG Semicon in 1999 and going head-to-head with Samsung Electronics in the memory market—before exiting the business in 2001 amid financial difficulties. There were forays in the other direction as well.
Samsung founded Samsung Motors in 1995, encroaching on Hyundai's home turf, and even after Samsung abandoned the auto business in 1999, Hyundai kept a wary eye on a possible re-entry. There were points of contact, such as a 2009 agreement to jointly develop automotive semiconductors, but the scope of cooperation was limited.
The turning point came in 2020. In May of that year, Euisun Chung, then senior vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, visited Samsung SDI's Cheonan plant to discuss next-generation technologies such as all-solid-state batteries with Lee Jae-yong, then vice chairman of Samsung Electronics. Two months later, Lee inspected autonomous driving and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle technology at Hyundai's Namyang Research Center.
The shift reflected a growing need for cooperation through component supply as automobiles became increasingly electrified and digitized.
Cooperation has since expanded rapidly into automotive semiconductors, EV batteries and robots.
The robotics connection is drawing particular attention. Under a structure in which Samsung SDI develops batteries with high output relative to volume and Hyundai Motor and Kia handle evaluation for robot applications, Samsung SDI batteries are reportedly set to go into "Atlas," the humanoid…
Originally published by Google News Motors
