November 26, 2024

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (center) poses with LG Group's top executives -- LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan and LG Corp. Chief Operating Officer Kwon Bong-seok -- at the Korean conglomerate's headquarters in western Seoul on Wednesday. (LG Electronics)

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook, met with LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan on Wednesday in Seoul to discuss ways to strengthen their corporate partnership in the extended reality business.

Zuckerberg had a luncheon with Cho and other senior officials from LG, including Kwon Bong-seok, chief operating officer at LG Corp., and Park Hyoung-sei, president of home entertainment business at LG Electronics, at the tech giant’s headquarters in western Seoul, according to the company.

During the two-hour meeting, the two discussed the direction of next-generation XR device collaboration and the possibility of future collaboration surrounding artificial intelligence development.

After the meeting with Zuckerberg, Cho told reporters that they talked about two topics, including the mixed reality device that they have been collaborating on and how Meta’s large language model LLaMA can be effectively implemented in.

He further hinted that the commercialization of the device jointly developed by LG and Meta will likely come in 2025. The companies decided on the device’s concept and are ready to develop, but reflecting various market demands, the launch may be slightly delayed, he added.

It was the first time for Zuckerberg and Cho to have a meeting in person. The two chiefs’ gathering came as the two companies shared a mutual interest in advancing XR technologies as a key driver for future innovation and growth.

LG has been considering commercializing XR devices for several years. It recently launched a team under its TV business unit which is dedicated to XR technology development while hiring experts in the field since early this year.

During the CES 2024, the tech show held in Las Vegas in January, Cho said the company has been considering developing a new personal device using XR technology since it suspended its long-held smartphone business in April 2021.

Meta released the virtual reality headset, the Quest 3, at the end of last year in a bid to take a lead in the burgeoning XR market. Meanwhile, its archrival Apple’s latest Vision Pro headset was launched in the US, earlier this month.

Cho expected that LG and Meta would be able to strengthen cooperation in the generative AI business, as well as in the media content sector. He also hinted at the two chiefs’ frequent meetings in the future.

“The scope of our cooperation can be said to be very wide in terms of innovatively improving customer experience by quickly accessing AI with Meta’s LLM and our more than 500 million devices around the world,” he said.

The Meta founder arrived in Seoul on Tuesday as part of his Asian tour. Zuckerberg's visit to Korea came after about a decade, the first official visit since 2013.

Industry sources said Zuckerberg was likely to meet with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong to discuss ways to cooperate with AI chips and XR business during his stay in Seoul as he did during his last trip to the country. Zuckerberg met with Lee in Korea in 2014 and visited Samsung Electronics' research and development lab in the US in 2022.

The Meta CEO is also scheduled to meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol before departing the country on Thursday to travel to India.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)