US tech giant Nvidia said on Friday it will supply 260,000 of its most cutting-edge chips to South Korea, as CEO Jensen Huang met President Lee Jae Myung and the heads of Korea’s biggest companies on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
South Korea is home to two of the world’s leading memory chip makers — Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — which manufacture chips essential for artificial intelligence products and the data centres that the fast-evolving industry relies on.
President Lee has also expressed his hope the country can become a leading AI power.
Nvidia said it was “working with South Korea to expand the nation’s AI infrastructure with over a quarter-million Nvidia GPUs across its sovereign clouds and AI factories”.
Under Friday’s deal, 50,000 of the graphics processing units will go towards a new “AI factory” being built by Samsung Electronics.
“By deploying more than 50,000 Nvidia GPUs, AI will be embedded throughout Samsung’s entire manufacturing flow,” the Korean tech giant said.
SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group will also receive 50,000 chips for use in AI facilities.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung as the US tech giant said it would supply 260,000 of its cutting-edge chips to the country – Copyright POOL/AFP JUNG YEON-JE
NAVER Cloud — which operates South Korea’s largest search engine — will receive 60,000 to expand its AI infrastructure.
A further 50,000 will be deployed across Seoul’s National AI Computing Center and to cloud service and IT providers.
“Korea’s leadership in technology and manufacturing positions is at the heart of the AI industrial revolution — where accelerated computing infrastructure becomes as vital as power grids and broadband,” Nvidia CEO Huang said.
– Chicken and chips –
Huang has sought to forge closer ties with South Korean tech giants in his visit to the country this week.
He met Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Eui-sun on Thursday for “chimaek” — a beloved South Korean pairing of fried chicken and beer — in the capital Seoul.
The restaurant, Kkanbu, was reportedly chosen by Nvidia because the term — popularised by Netflix’s megahit “Squid Game” and meaning “friend” — was intended to highlight the spirit of friendship underpinning their AI and chip collaborations.
Nvidia in July became the first company to top $4 trillion in market capitalisation, and followed that up by becoming the first to hit $5 trillion following a company event on Tuesday where it announced new ventures building on its AI technology.
Its chips drive much of the global AI industry and even featured in talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Gyeongju this week.
Beijing has ramped up its chip industry to beat Washington’s export restrictions on the critical component used to power AI systems.
Nvidia has been caught in the middle of that geopolitical tussle. Its chips are currently not sold in China due to a combination of Beijing government bans, US national security concerns and ongoing trade tensions.
Huang has urged the United States to allow the sale of US-made AI chips in China in order to ensure Silicon Valley companies remain a global powerhouse in providing artificial intelligence.
“We did discuss chips,” Trump said after meeting Xi, adding that Huang would speak to Beijing about the dispute.
“We’re sort of the arbitrator or the referee,” Trump said.
