President Lee Jae-myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held a 30-minute summit in New York on September 22 as negotiations on South Korean investment, shipbuilding and strategic industrial cooperation advanced. The discussions covered U.S. naval vessel construction at Philly Shipyard with Hanwha investment, nuclear-powered submarine fuel, civil enrichment and reprocessing, wartime operational control and next-generation military systems. The talks build on a $350 billion bilateral investment and trade framework established in July 2025, including $200 billion for strategic sectors and $150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation, alongside a reduction in U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods from 25% to 15%. South Korea has capped annual investments at $20 billion and passed implementing legislation on March 12, 2026. On September 23, Lee told global investors that South Korea was also pursuing megaprojects in semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers, targeting doubled memory capacity within five years and citing monthly exports above $100 billion in June and projected annual exports of $1 trillion.