South Korea has become the stage for one of the largest artificial-intelligence partnerships announced to date. According to The Korea Herald and Korea Times, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said Friday that his chip company and South Korea's SK Group would unveil business partnerships representing more than $500 billion, revealed in connection with a meeting involving President Lee.
According to Yahoo Finance, Nvidia and SK Group's initiative centers on AI data centers and a memory partnership, together valued at more than $500 billion. Bloomberg framed the moment around what it called South Korea's "golden age" and highlighted an SK Hynix Group partnership, pointing to the role of the country's memory-chip makers in powering AI systems.
The partnership was one piece of a broader gathering. According to Nikkei Asia, President Lee hosted a U.S. tech summit as the country seeks a new AI era. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Lee met with the chiefs of OpenAI, Nvidia, Broadcom and Anthropic to discuss Korea's transformation into an "AI society," and that Huang announced major partnerships with Korean companies following that meeting.
Nvidia's investments extend beyond SK. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Nvidia is betting $300 million on a research lab with KAIST, South Korea's elite science and engineering university. Yahoo Finance Singapore reported that Nvidia also expanded its AI reach through a partnership with Amkor. Digitimes reported that South Korea unveiled a wider AI cooperation agenda as Nvidia's partnerships expand.
Why it matters: The scale of the announced commitments signals that South Korea — home to major memory-chip manufacturers — is positioning itself as a central hub in the global race to build AI infrastructure, deepening ties between American chip designers and Korean hardware suppliers.