South Korea Pledges $150 Billion U.S. Investment, Prioritizes Shipbuilding and Energy Cooperation

WASHINGTION, Aug. 26, 2025 — The high-profile visit of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to the US and his meeting with President Donald Trump has led to a number of trade and investment announcements being made.

However, in the backdrop of the Presidential visit, companies such as HD Hyundai and Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday revealed their investments to respectively build shipping and robotics sectors in the US.

Earlier on Monday, US and South Korea announced a series of agreements in Washington, including multibillion-dollar investments, record $50 billion aviation purchases by Korean Air, and new energy cooperation, as leaders from both countries met in the Oval Office

“We really sort of need each other. We love what they do. We love their products. We love their ships. We love a lot of the things that they make, and they love what we have,” President Donald Trump said during his press conference with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

The announcements have come after a July trade deal that lowered US tariffs on South Korean exports, including autos, to 15 percent from 25 percent.

As part of the deal, Seoul committed $350 billion in investments in the US, with $150 billion earmarked for shipbuilding cooperation.

However, there was lack of clarity whether Monday’s pledge overlapped with that earlier figure, although Reuters reported that the $150 billion pledge was separate from the $350 billion that the July deal included.

Lee said in his remarks that “I believe that there is a renaissance taking place not only in the shipbuilding sector but also in the manufacturing industry, and I hope that Korea can be a part of that renaissance.”

In a separate announcement, Korean Air announced an almost $50 billion deal to buy aircraft and engines from US manufacturers.

HD Hyundai’s Role in Shipbuilding Industry You Should Know

Stakeholders of Deal: South Korea's leading shipbuilding conglomerate HD Hyundai on Tuesday made an announcement about an initial agreement signed to create a joint investment programme that focuses on rebuilding the US shipbuilding industry.

The investment is part of bilateral cooperation between Seoul and Washington as the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in Washington on Monday by HD Hyundai, the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and US investment firm Cerberus Capital.

The signing ceremony was arranged by South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the US Department of Commerce, and it followed President Lee Jae Myung's bilateral summit with President Trump in Washington.

Make American Shipbuilding Great Again: As per HD Hyundai, the shipbuilding initiative is a part of the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again, or MASGA, program initiated in the tariff deal in July. The collaboration is formulated to strengthen US and allied naval capabilities, as well as marine logistics infrastructure.

The joint investment plan envisages acquiring and modernizing US shipyards, supporting suppliers to reinforce the supply chain and developing advanced shipbuilding technologies such as autonomous operations and artificial intelligence (AI).

Why is Hyundai Motor’s Proposed Robot Factory Important?

After setting up a factory in Georgia, which is powered by new-age technology including robots, Hyundai Motor Group has earmarked $26 billion (approximately 36 trillion won) in the United States over the next four years starting this year. This investment is a jump of $5 billion from the $21 billion investment announced in March at the White House with President Donald Trump.

With this investment, Hyundai Motor Group intends to reciprocate to US government policies while carrying out diversification to boost its future business competitiveness, including mobility. The key areas of investment are future industries such as steel, automobiles, and robotics. The sought-after robotics sector accounts for the majority of the newly added $5 billion.

Hyundai Motor Group’s most significant announcement has been to establish a new robot factory in the US with an annual capacity of 30,000 units.

The strategy is to establish this factory as a hub for robot production in the US, playing a key role in the expanding robot ecosystem. Hyundai Motor Group is hopeful to enhance partnerships with leading US companies in future technologies such as robotics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI), and software-defined vehicles (SDV), as well as the commercialization of its US subsidiaries such including Boston Dynamics and Motional.

Earlier this month, HD Hyundai secured a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) project for the U.S. Navy's 41,000-ton dry cargo vessel USNS Alan Shepard.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder