‘Asia’s richest man’ Mukesh Ambani (68), Chairman of India’s Reliance Group, visits Korea on a day trip and meets with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Samsung Electronics executives are putting in effort, including coming out in full force to welcome Chairman Ambani. Chairman Lee’s ‘network management’, which has a long relationship with Chairman Ambani, is gaining speed.
According to the business world on the 25th, Chairman Ambani and his eldest son Akash Ambani (34), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Reliance Jio Infocomm, will visit Korea on this day. It is a short itinerary, landing at Gimpo Airport by private plane around 8 am and returning to India around 10 pm. This is the first time a father and son visit Korea together.
Chairman Ambani leads India’s largest group by entering business fields such as petrochemicals, energy, and telecommunications in India, a country with a large population. According to Forbes, Chairman Ambani’s wealth is worth $111.4 billion (about 162 trillion won). He is the richest man in India and Asia (15th in the world). Since 2012, 40 trillion won has been invested to install a 4G LTE communication network throughout India. Additionally, Samsung has been the sole supplier of communication equipment for over 10 years. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are also rushing to visit him to seize business opportunities in India.
Samsung does its best to treat VIP customers when they visit Korea. The Ambani father and son’s 14-hour schedule is expected to be densely packed. The person who greeted Chairman Ambani, who entered the country through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center, was Kim Woo-jun, head of the network business department (president) of Samsung Electronics. President Kim is the head of the network business division, which develops mobile communication infrastructure and network equipment, which Samsung sees as future growth engines along with semiconductors and biotechnology.
One of Chairman Ambani’s destinations during his visit to Korea is the Innovation Museum at Samsung Electronics’ Suwon plant. It is the world’s largest electronics industry history museum, boasted by Samsung. It is also a place where overseas VIPs stop by. What stands out is that Tae-moon Noh, head of the DX division (CEO), who oversees Samsung Electronics’ mobile and home appliance business, guides this place.
Samsung Electronics Giheung and Hwaseong campuses will also be visited. The Giheung Campus is the sacred ground of Samsung Semiconductor’s legend, which opened in 1983. It was the first place in the world to develop 64MB (megabyte) DRAM in 1992. Hwaseong Campus is the future of Samsung Semiconductor. High-tech foundry (consignment production) semiconductors are made here. It has been reported that Jeon Young-hyun, head of the DS division (Vice Chairman), who oversees Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, will welcome Ambani as Chairman.
A Samsung Electronics official said, “Ambani and his son initially discussed a schedule to tour the network division of Samsung’s Suwon plant, but the schedule changed to a tour of ‘Samsung’s legacy.’ I understand that Chairman Lee made the final adjustments to Ambani’s schedule.” Chairman Ambani’s final visit to Korea is a dinner with Chairman Lee somewhere in Seoul. As the richest man in Asia, Ambani and his wife are known to have sent their bodyguards in advance to carefully survey all of their movements.
Chairman Lee was the only person in the country to be invited to attend the weddings of Chairman Ambani’s three children (in 2018, 2019, and 2024). In 2019, Akash Ambani’s appearance wearing an Indian turban during his wedding became a hot topic. A Samsung official explained, “In many cases, ‘JY Network’ played a big role in the process of Samsung Electronics entering the Indian market as well as winning large contracts.”
