SK Group & Hyundai: Inside NVIDIA's South Korea AI Deals

NVIDIA has turned to South Korea to secure memory chips from SK hynix .

Alongside this deal, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, spent four days in Seoul and secured agreements with SK Telecom, Naver, Doosan, LG Group and Hyundai Motor.

The partnerships cover memory supply, data centre construction and autonomous systems.

NVIDIA and its partners have not disclosed the financial terms of the agreements.

Memory supply

SK hynix will supply memory chips to NVIDIA across robotics, personal computers and supercomputers under a multi-year arrangement.

The partnership allows for extensions beyond the initial two-year term.

Jensen met with Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, the parent company of SK hynix to secure the deal.

SK hynix competes with Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology in the memory chip sector.

Jensen said: “We already procure and we buy from SK hynix already billions and billions of dollars each year and it is going to grow substantially.”

The agreement comes as memory chip manufacturers work to meet demand from AI infrastructure projects.

Data center projects

SK Telecom will construct a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea using NVIDIA's technology.

The first AI data center is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.

Naver and Doosan Group are also set to deploy NVIDIA technology in AI data center projects.

Doosan also plans to use NVIDIA physical AI technology in its operations.

Mobility and manufacturing

Jensen met with Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman and CEO at LG Group, to discuss collaboration on electronics, mechanical systems and AI for humanoid robots.

He said: "We are working with them in motor technology as well as mechanical systems so that we can bring together humanoid robotics and the future of robotics."

NVIDIA has expanded its partnership with Hyundai Motor Group following a meeting between Jensen and Euisun Chung, Executive Chair at Hyundai Motor Group.

The collaboration covers autonomous mobility, robotics and AI-powered manufacturing.

Jensen said NVIDIA and Hyundai will work together to bring AI to all forms of mobility.

He referred to the planned AI data centre of Hyundai Motor Group in Saemangeum, South Korea as an AI Valley akin to Silicon Valley in California.

Jensen also highlighted opportunities to accelerate the development of industrial robotics through the partnership.

Market volatility

South Korea produces chips, electronics, cars and ships. SK hynix  and Samsung Electronics are the two largest makers of memory chips in the world.

The benchmark Kospi index of the country doubled in six months as SK hynix and Samsung Electronics benefited from demand related to AI infrastructure.

However, the index closed 8.3% lower on Monday after US jobs data influenced expectations about Federal Reserve rate policy.

Shares in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix closed down 10.2% and 7.7% respectively. The decline followed a selloff in global technology stocks.

When asked about the chip stock decline, Jensen waved off concerns. He said: "Everybody should be very excited; they can now buy stock at a cheaper price and it is absolutely true that the future of AI is very bright."