Why Global AI Leaders Continue to Meet in San Francisco
Led by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, the Korea AI Summit brought government, technology, and industrial leaders from the United States and South Korea to The Midway for a conversation spanning semiconductors, computing infrastructure, foundational models, manufacturing, and international cooperation.
The gathering reflected how much the AI conversation has expanded. Artificial intelligence is no longer shaped primarily by software companies and research labs. Governments, semiconductor manufacturers, infrastructure providers, industrial companies, universities, and technology platforms are increasingly part of the same ecosystem.
It also highlighted San Francisco’s continued role as a place where those groups come together.
Watch: Korea AI Summit at The Midway
Associated Press coverage from the Korea AI Summit at The Midway in San Francisco.
Who’s Who at the Korea AI Summit
The summit brought together government officials and leaders from many of the organizations shaping today’s AI ecosystem.
President of the Republic of Korea
Founder & CEO, NVIDIA
CEO, OpenAI
Co-Founder & CEO, Anthropic
President & CEO, Broadcom
Executive Chairman, Samsung Electronics
Chairman, SK Group
Executive Chair, Hyundai Motor Group
Founder, NAVER
Stanford University, Moderator
AI’s Next Phase Is Bigger Than Technology
The range of organizations represented at the summit tells much of the story. Modern AI depends on an interconnected system of semiconductors, memory, networking, data centers, energy, cloud infrastructure, foundational models, manufacturing, research, and skilled talent.
South Korea plays an important role across that system. President Lee outlined ambitions around AI semiconductors, hyperscale data centers, physical AI, education, and public services. NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang discussed the importance of South Korea’s memory-chip industry to modern AI computing, while leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Broadcom, Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and NAVER represented different parts of the infrastructure and industries increasingly connected by AI.
Seeing those organizations represented in one gathering made the industry’s interdependence visible. The next phase of AI will require collaboration among governments, infrastructure companies, model developers, manufacturers, researchers, and the organizations putting these technologies to work.
“The sheer gravity of the global AI boom was displayed Friday on stage at The Midway.”
— NVIDIA
Why San Francisco Still Matters
AI is being developed around the world, but San Francisco remains one of the industry’s most important meeting points.
The city and surrounding Bay Area concentrate AI research labs, infrastructure companies, universities, investors, founders, enterprise customers, and technical talent within a relatively small region. That makes San Francisco a practical destination for international delegations, executive summits, developer conferences, product launches, investor meetings, and research gatherings.
Its importance also comes from the people who regularly pass through it. Leaders visiting the Bay Area can meet with multiple partners, customers, researchers, founders, and policymakers during a single trip.
For an industry moving as quickly as AI, those face-to-face conversations still matter. Significant decisions around infrastructure, policy, investment, manufacturing, and partnerships often require focused time together, including private discussions and introductions that happen outside the formal program.
The Korea AI Summit was a particularly visible example, but it is part of a much broader pattern of the global AI community continuing to gather in San Francisco.
AI Events Are Changing With the Industry
The expanding AI ecosystem is also changing the events built around it.
A gathering may now include technical practitioners, founders, investors, government representatives, researchers, enterprise leaders, and media within the same program. The stage remains important, but so do private meeting spaces, hospitality, controlled access, media environments, dining, demonstrations, and places where conversations can continue between sessions.
We’ve seen this across AI and technology gatherings at The Midway, including LangChain Interrupt, MongoDB.local San Francisco, Upscale Conf, AI Native, Vercel Ship AI, and the Korea AI Summit. Each has used the campus differently because each was designed around a different community and purpose.
What they share is a need for interaction beyond the formal program. A keynote may establish the conversation, but partnerships can begin during a reception, technical discussions can continue over a meal, and executives may need a private room to advance something introduced onstage. This is one reason dedicated third spaces for conference networking have become increasingly important.
The Midway’s Role
Over the past several years, The Midway has become a gathering place for organizations working across artificial intelligence, enterprise technology, data infrastructure, software development, and the creative industries.
Its Dogpatch location places it near Mission Bay, UCSF, and San Francisco’s growing technology and life-science communities. The 40,000-square-foot campus includes multiple interconnected indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing keynotes to take place alongside executive hospitality, breakout conversations, sponsor environments, dining, media activity, demonstrations, and networking.
That flexibility matters as technology events become more varied. Programs change, speakers are added, attendance grows, security needs evolve, and different audiences need different environments. A multi-space campus gives organizers room to adapt while keeping everyone connected to the same event.
The Korea AI Summit was an extraordinary gathering, but it also reflected something we continue to see across the events happening here: as the AI ecosystem grows, the value of bringing people together in the right environment grows with it.
Korea AI Summit Event Photography at The Midway by Sam Khedr
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