Due to his ongoing recovery from his COVID-19 diagnosis, President Joe Biden met virtually on Tuesday with representatives of the South Korean conglomerate SK Group to introduce $22 billion of new investment in manufacturing. The White House said the new investment comes on top of $7 billion previously announced by the organization. The SK Group owns SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, and SK On, the electric vehicle battery maker.

Biden appeared on a television monitor as U.S. officials and business representatives from South Korea gathered in the Roosevelt Room.  As the president continues to isolate following his COVID-19 diagnosis last week, he said: “I’m feeling great. I hope it comes across that way. … I hope I look as good as I usually do, which is not that good.

Chairman of SK Group, Chey Tae-Won commended South Korea’s ongoing relationship with the United States while discussing the $22 billion in new investment in the United States in manufacturing and tech, which he said represented more than $30 billion total. Said Chey:  “Tomorrow, we commemorate 69 years since the end of the Korean War. So the American and Korean relationship is deep and longstanding. Today, we are here to talk about the investment in the U.S.”  Biden replied:  “Today’s announcement is further proof America is back to working with our allies. We’re going to continue to invest in the education side of this, so you can have the best trained and best equipped workers.”

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