US Chip Giant, Nvidia, Strikes Bumper AI Deals With South Korea Government

US Chip Giant, Nvidia, Strikes Bumper AI Deals With South Korea Government

US chip giant Nvidia will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to the South Korean government and to Samsung, LG, and Hyundai.

According to Chief Executive Jensen Huang, Various companies will deploy AI chips in factories to make everything from semiconductors and robots to autonomous vehicles, meaning South Korea can “now produce intelligence as a new export,”.

Mr Huang did not disclose the value of the South Korean deals.

It caps off a busy week for Nvidia, which on Wednesday became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion and on Thursday saw signs of a thaw in US-China trade relations that may allow it to export more of its chips to China.

Speaking at a CEO summit on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Gyeongju, South Korea, Mr Huang added that with the chips, companies would be able to create “digital twins” with other factories around the world.

These deals form part of Nvidia’s latest effort to expand AI infrastructure globally, to further integrate AI into products and services.

Nvidia has been striking international partnerships, which helped it become the first company ever to be valued at $5tn (£3.8tn) on Wednesday.

According to the Nvidia CEO, the country is the ideal place to expand AI infrastructure, because of its access to energy and land, and its ability to construct factories.

President Lee Jae Myung said he would prioritise AI investment after taking office, amid US tariffs.

With the Nvidia deal, the South Korean government plans to build computing infrastructure that it will control, a term known as “sovereign AI”.

More than 50,000 Nvidia chips will power data centres at the National AI Computing Centre and facilities owned by South Korean companies like Kakao and Naver.

The chip giant depends on the tightly knit supply chains that run through the Asia Pacific region.

Nvidia is primarily a chip designer, and so outsources most of its physical production to manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix and TSMC.