Nvidia and South Korea’s SK Group announced a partnership valued at over $500 billion focused on artificial intelligence, including AI factories and next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) development [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
As part of the deal, Nvidia will assist SK Hynix in designing future HBM chips to secure memory supply and co-develop next-generation AI memory solutions tailored to evolving infrastructure needs [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. SK Telecom will build an Nvidia Vera Rubin-powered AI data center with a 2 gigawatt capacity, enough to power about 1.5 million homes. The data center is scheduled to open in 2027 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Nvidia also plans to invest $1 billion in South Korean internet and cloud provider Naver to triple the size of a jointly developed AI data center project with Brookfield. Brookfield signed a non-binding term sheet to provide up to $9 billion in funding for the Naver data center [2, 3, 4].
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is attending AI technology events in Silicon Valley alongside these commercial announcements [3, 4]. SK Group chairman Choi Tae-won noted that AI developer Anthropic is seeking chip supply from SK Hynix, highlighting ambitions by developers to create their own semiconductors [3].
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “This is the golden ages for Korea. Their semiconductor business is booming. Their industrial business is booming. You know, this is a country that has the ability to help the world build out the AI infrastructure.” He added, “So between us, we’re going to do half a trillion dollars’ worth of business.” [4]
The $500 billion figure covers Nvidia's memory chip purchases and SK Group’s purchases of Nvidia supercomputers [1, 3, 4]. SK Telecom’s AI facility powered by Nvidia Vera Rubin chips is expected to launch in 2027 [2, 3, 4].
