(Oct 31): Nvidia Corp forged a landmark deal to supply its technology to South Korea’s biggest companies, part of an aggressive push to expand AI infrastructure around the world.
Under agreements brokered with the country’s Ministry of Science and a trio of corporations — Samsung Electronics Co, Hyundai Motor Group and SK Group — Nvidia will be supplying more than 260,000 of its accelerator chips to help jump-start Korean AI projects. The US company didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deals.
Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang is in the country attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on Friday. He’s using the trip to continue a globe-trotting push to spread the use of artificial intelligence computing — and fuel demand for his products. The tie-ups in South Korea will help further entrench Nvidia’s equipment in a country with a vibrant technology industry.
As part of the agreements, the South Korean government is building what’s known as sovereign AI — computing infrastructure that it will control. It’s deploying more than 50,000 of Nvidia’s latest AI accelerators in data centres, including ones at the National AI Computing Center and facilities owned by companies such as Kakao Corp, Naver Corp and NHN Cloud Corp.
“South Korea’s goal is to become the AI capital of the Asia-Pacific region,” President Lee Jae Myung said in a statement.
Samsung Electronics, a key supplier of memory chips and one of the world’s largest semiconductor makers, will build an “AI factory” that’s home to more than 50,000 Nvidia chips. The Korean company said it’s in discussions to provide next-generation high-bandwidth memory known as HBM4 to Nvidia, with a target for mass output to meet its needs.
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Hyundai Motor, meanwhile, has committed to using a similar number of processors based on Nvidia’s Blackwell design. The chips will be used to develop the company’s AI models and help advance manufacturing and autonomous driving. The two companies plan to work together on a US$3 billion South Korean initiative to build a national, physical AI computing centre, Hyundai said.
SK Group, which includes affiliates SK Telecom Co and SK Hynix Inc, is deploying an array of Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell server chips in what Nvidia called Asia’s first “industrial AI cloud.” The facility will assist with robotics and other uses of AI in the physical world.
The AI frenzy has sent Nvidia’s sales — and market capitalisation — soaring over the past two years. Earlier this week, it became the first company to reach a valuation of more than US$5 trillion. That followed a company conference in Washington where Huang pointed to strong demand for his products over the coming months.
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A lingering question is whether Nvidia will be able to sell its Blackwell processors to China, the world’s largest market for chips. On Friday, Huang told Bloomberg News he still hopes to do that, though he currently has no plans for it.
The US has curbed exports of the technology to the Asian nation. Though President Donald Trump has said he’s open to raising the issue with China, the topic didn’t come up during a meeting this week with counterpart Xi Jinping.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
