NVIDIA and South Korea Forge Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Global AI Innovation

South Korean President Jae Myung Lee and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced a series of infrastructure and research partnerships on July 24, 2026, aimed at establishing South Korea as a global center for AI innovation. The agreements include the creation of a first-of-its-kind joint AI research lab with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and a massive expansion of AI factory capacity through NAVER and SK Group, according to the NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA and South Korean Industry Infrastructure Expansion

The partnership focuses on a full-stack expansion of Korea’s AI capabilities, targeting semiconductors, data centers, and physical AI. According to the NVIDIA Blog, NAVER, Brookfield, and NVIDIA will expand the NVIDIA DSX AI factory at the GAK Sejong data center to 200 megawatts. This buildout, based on the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform, will utilize roughly 100,000 GPUs, more than tripling the initial scale announced in June 2026.

SK Group and NVIDIA also announced a comprehensive partnership valued at over $500 billion to build AI infrastructure for global compute demand. This collaboration will deploy NVIDIA Vera Rubin infrastructure integrated with SK hynix HBM4 memory, according to the company’s official blog.

Hyundai Motor Group is implementing a physical AI strategy utilizing a robot reference platform developed with NVIDIA. This strategy involves a buildout of 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and the integration of NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion—an autonomous vehicle development platform—with Hyundai’s vehicle platforms, the NVIDIA Blog reports.

Academic Research and Agentic AI Initiatives

NVIDIA and KAIST have established a joint AI research lab at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI in Seoul. This is the first joint AI lab between a Korean university and a global technology company, according to the NVIDIA Blog. The lab is dedicated to advancing agentic AI specifically for the Korean language and local industry, supported by a multiyear funding and training commitment for researchers.

Additional academic collaborations include:

• KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering: Planning an NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) for research in physical AI using NVIDIA Nemotron open models.
• Seoul National University (SNU): Planning an NVAITC covering foundation models, accelerated computing, and AI for science, utilizing NVIDIA Nemotron and NVIDIA Cosmos open world foundation models.

National AI Strategy and the San Francisco AI Declaration

During the AI Summit in San Francisco, President Lee delivered the San Francisco AI Declaration. He described a multitrillion-dollar investment plan for AI semiconductors and hyperscale data centers, framing the emergence of AI as humanity discovering fire anew, according to the NVIDIA Blog.

President Lee met with Jensen Huang at the Fairmont San Francisco to discuss Korea’s goal of becoming a pivotal hub in the global AI supply chain. Huang cited the importance of Korean innovation in memory chips, stating that without the invention of HBM memory in Korea, NVIDIA would not have been able to create the supercomputers powering current AI.

“From AI chips and physical AI to AI infrastructure, Korea has achieved remarkable results under your leadership over the past year. This is truly the beginning of a golden age for Korea.”
Jensen Huang

The summit included a high-level meeting at the Midway venue in San Francisco. President Lee appeared alongside Jensen Huang and executives from OpenAI, Broadcom, and Anthropic, as well as leaders from Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and NAVER. Sam Altman of OpenAI stated that the AI revolution would not have occurred without Korea’s contributions, according to the NVIDIA Blog.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won highlighted the intensity of current compute demand, noting that Jensen Huang consistently requests more chips during their meetings.