Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin met senior United States officials in Washington on Thursday, expanding the Korean retail group’s role in a US-led artificial intelligence supply chain initiative.
The Korean retail giant partnered with US startup Reflection AI in March, and the two companies are currently working to establish a joint venture and select a site for a large-scale AI data center in Korea.
Washington Backing for Korean Infrastructure
Chung attended the launch of Foundry School at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace after an invitation from US Vice President JD Vance and the US Department of State. Run jointly by the State Department and Stanford University, the program trains technical talent and entrepreneurs for strategic industrial sectors.
US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg called the Shinsegae alliance with Reflection AI a template for allied economic security under Washington’s Pax Silica framework. The initiative aligns supply chains across semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and power generation among allied nations.
Attendees included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Corporate leaders present included Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson.
“Successfully leading an advanced-industry supply chain alliance centered on the US is the task of our time,” Chung said during discussions in Washington.
From Department Stores to Server Racks
Shinsegae is pivoting from traditional store networks into digital infrastructure. Department store operators across Asia face margin pressure in physical formats. That pressure is driving conglomerates to seek revenue from digital services, logistics networks and cloud infrastructure.
Securing backing from Washington gives Shinsegae diplomatic standing and potential hardware access that purely domestic competitors lack. Execution carries risk. Developing and powering high-density data centers requires heavy capital expenditure and massive grid capacity in an already constrained Korean energy market.
Next Steps for Joint Venture
Talks in Washington build on an initial agreement signed in March, when Shinsegae and Reflection AI agreed to pursue a dedicated data center project in South Korea. That deal was the first project designated under the State Department framework promoting allied AI expansion.
Both companies are now finalizing terms for the joint venture entity. They are reviewing prospective sites across South Korea ahead of formal construction filings.
