Industry sources (via Hankyung) say that Chairman Lee will accompany President Yoon Suk-yeol and fly to the United States this weekend at the earliest. Lee Jae-yong's business trip is said to be scheduled to end in the second week of May.
Reportedly, Lee won't visit the construction site of Samsung's up-and-coming chip factory in Taylor, Texas. The plan, however, is to meet with the tech industry's most prominent leaders and discuss future business opportunities.
Lee to meet with the CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon
The USA is a huge market for Samsung Electronics, with reports saying that sales of its local subsidiary reached 86 trillion won ($64.9 billion) in 2022. Chairman Lee reportedly has his schedule full, as he intends to visit numerous major US-based companies, including network operators Verizon and T-Mobile. Samsung supposedly wants to sign a new contract with T-Mobile to assist the carrier in a 5G network project.
Lee Jae-yong will also meet Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Even though Samsung MX competes with Apple and even Google, Samsung's component divisions are close partners to both US-based tech giants, and Lee is planning to maintain close ties with both.
Lee may discuss new Google search engine deals with Sundar Pichai
According to the recent report, one of the reasons why Lee will meet with Google CEO Sundar Pichai is to discuss the terms of the search engine on Galaxy devices. Recent rumors say that Samsung is considering using Microsoft Bing as the default search engine on Galaxy phones and tablets, and abandon Google Search in the process. If this comes to pass, it would mean a huge loss for Google.
Samsung is by far the most influential Android device maker, and the company appears to have the upper hand over Google. In other words, it almost looks as though Android needs Samsung more than Samsung needs Android, which might give the Korean tech giant the high ground in new negotiations concerning Google Search and other services.
Incidentally, Lee Jae-yong is also expected to meet Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, although the purpose of this meeting is unknown. In addition, Samsung's Chairman plans to see the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, possibly to discuss a collaboration around Samsung cameras and image sensors for a self-driving car Amazon is developing.
