President Lee Jae Myung reportedly held a closed-door meeting with Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, on Sept. 2 to discuss the group’s roughly 9 trillion-won investment in South Korea’s Saemangeum area and related U.S. projects. Hyundai announced in February plans for a 1,124,000-square-meter complex focused on robotics, artificial intelligence and hydrogen energy. The group plans to seek approval this month for a 5.8 trillion-won AI data center, with the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency targeting construction permits within the year and groundbreaking in March 2027. The meeting came as South Korea-U.S. investment negotiations stalled and the Donald Trump U.S. administration threatened higher tariffs on South Korea.