Samsung, SoftBank bosses discuss IoT, AI: Report
Leaders of South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Japan's SoftBank met in Seoul late Thursday to reportedly discuss cooperation in future technologies.
Samsung vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, also known by JY Lee, met with SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son at the Korean tech giant's office in Seoul, and discussed cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and the Internet of Things, according to local media.
Samsung confirmed the meeting but declined to comment on what they discussed.
Son also met South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday, who asked Samsung's chairman to invest in the countries, especially in areas such as new energy and AI.
Heir-apparent Lee has been the de facto chairman of Samsung since his father Lee Kun-hee's hospitalization following a heart attack. Earlier this month, he was nominated to the board, amid the company's global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 following battery explosions.
SoftBank recently acquired UK chip firm ARM, which licenses its core architecture for processors used by Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung, for $32 billion. It is likely that more processors for new Internet of Things devices will use the design.
Processors and high-memory capacity are all a must for the realization of more Internet of Things tech.
Samsung, in turn, is the world's largest memory chip maker.