Nvidia deepens South Korea ties with AI chip and data center deals

Jensen Huang turned a visit to Seoul into a supply-chain signal, unveiling new Nvidia partnerships with SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Naver and Doosan Group that tie AI demand more tightly to South Korea’s chip factories, telecom networks and industrial base. The agreements, announced on June 8, deepen Nvidia’s reach into the country that sits near the center of global memory-chip production and AI infrastructure.

The most important deal was with SK Hynix, which signed a multi-year technology partnership with Nvidia to advance next-generation memory for the global AI factory buildout and accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing. Huang said SK Hynix would remain Nvidia’s largest memory partner, adding that Nvidia already buys billions of dollars’ worth of chips from the company every year and expects that relationship to grow substantially. SK Hynix said it will use Nvidia technologies including Omniverse, OpenUSD scene optimization and cuOpt to build factory digital twins and move toward autonomous fab operations.

The stack widened beyond chips. SK Telecom said it plans to build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea using Nvidia’s DSX platform, with the first AI factory expected online in 2027. Naver and Doosan Group were also set to use Nvidia systems and software to expand local AI infrastructure and physical-AI capabilities, extending the company’s influence from data centers into the industrial systems that will run them.

Huang made the pitch unusually visible even by his own standards. On June 7, he threw the ceremonial first pitch before a Korea Baseball Organization game between the Doosan Bears and the Kiwoom Heroes at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, wearing a Bears jersey marked No. 93, a nod to Nvidia’s founding year. He said he was there to thank partners and enjoy Korean fried chicken and beer, but the night also underscored how closely Nvidia is now aligning itself with South Korea’s corporate power centers.

The stakes are larger than one visit. South Korea is one of the world’s most important semiconductor manufacturing hubs, and its memory suppliers are under pressure to keep pace with AI demand as data centers spread and model training gets more power-hungry. By binding itself to SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Naver and Doosan, Nvidia is building more than a customer list: it is locking in the chips, networks and industrial capacity that can help determine who has leverage in the next phase of the global AI race.