Nvidia signs sweeping AI deals with South Korean giants

TL;DR:

  • Nvidia announced a series of deals with South Korean firms including SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Naver, Doosan, LG and Hyundai.
  • SK Hynix signed a multi-year deal to develop advanced memory for global AI data centres, securing supply for Nvidia’s expansion.
  • The agreements came during chief executive Jensen Huang’s high-profile trip to Seoul.

Nvidia has locked in a cluster of partnerships across South Korea, shoring up the memory-chip supply it needs to sustain AI demand while seeding new “AI factories”. The deals, unveiled during chief executive Jensen Huang’s trip to Seoul, span SK Hynix, SK Telecom, internet giant Naver and conglomerates Doosan, LG and Hyundai, though their value was not disclosed.

Securing the AI supply chain

The centrepiece is a multi-year deal with SK Hynix, already Nvidia’s largest memory partner, to develop advanced memory for AI data centres as suppliers strain to keep pace. “We already buy from SK Hynix billions and billions of dollars each year, and it’s going to grow substantially,” Huang said, describing a deal of more than two years with options to extend. NH Investment analyst Ryu Young-ho said the partnership reinforced a shift in which memory chips are becoming “a more customer-specific business” rather than a commodity.

The wider deals reach beyond chips. SK Telecom will build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud with the first data centre online in 2027; Naver and Doosan will use Nvidia technology for their own facilities; LG will collaborate on humanoid robots; and Hyundai will deepen work on autonomous mobility and AI-powered manufacturing. Huang likened Hyundai’s planned Saemangeum data centre to an “AI Valley”. The announcements landed on a turbulent day: the Kospi closed 8.3% lower amid a global tech rout, with SK Hynix and Samsung shares both falling sharply.

Looking forward

The deals underline how AI leadership increasingly depends on locking up memory and compute supply — the same logic driving the UK’s own push for sovereign AI hardware. South Korea’s deepening Nvidia ties strengthen a manufacturing powerhouse just as Britain tries to reduce reliance on US chips. For UK firms, the takeaway is the scale of the contest for compute — and how far ahead the established chip-and-memory clusters already sit.

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