October 30, 2024

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg enters LG Twintower at the LG Electronics headquarters building in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

Following the high-profile visit of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week, stocks related to advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality and display panels are gaining attention.

In a report on Friday, Korea Investment and Securities suggested eight stocks, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, that would benefit from Zuckerberg's visit to Seoul.

Traveling to Korea for the first time in about a decade, Zuckerberg met with President Yoon Suk Yeol and business leaders during his three-day trip, including separate meetings with Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong and LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan, to discuss ways to expand cooperation in cutting-edge technologies.

"Zuckerberg visited Korea for the first time in about 10 years. Meta plans to reduce its reliance on Nvidia's GPUs and secure its own AI chips," said Kim Dae-joon, market analyst at Korea Investment and Securities.

"Here, Samsung Foundry may supply the AI chips needed to operate Llama 3, Meta's LLM model."

On Meta's partnership with LG Electronics on XR technology -- combining AR and virtual reality technologies -- Kim said the tech giants might be interested in OLED on Silicon display panels, which increases the pixels per inch for ultra-high-resolutions and reduces the space used for physical panels.

The demand for camera modules and 3D sensing modules used to identify people and animals to prevent road crashes is also expected to increase, so the stocks related to these technologies are also thought to benefit from Zuckerberg's visit, Kim said.

In the list of firms expected to benefit from the visit are Samsung Electronics, EO Technics, a wafer marker and laser application systems supplier, and Soulbrain, a chip, display and secondary battery parts firm.

The Korea Investment and Securities report also included LG Electronics and LG Innotek, which produces substrates for semiconductors, LG Display developing OLEDoS panels, Namuga, a 3D sensing camera technology firm and OLED evaporation equipment system firm Sunic System.

The tech leader also reportedly held talks with five local startups here, including Upstage, FriendliAI, MathPresso, Devs United Games and Stoic Entertainment.

Rounding up his three-day trip in Seoul, Zuckerberg left for India on Thursday.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)