US semiconductor giant Nvidia on Monday announced a large-scale data center construction project with SK Telecom, among a number of deals in South Korea.
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, also said it will work with chipmaker SK Hynix to develop advanced memory components that are currently in short supply to help run AI systems.
The partnership was announced after CEO Jensen Hwang spent the weekend in Seoul having a barbecue with the country’s technology leaders and appearing on a popular TV show.
SK Telecom and Nvidia “plan to build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea…the first AI factory is expected to be operational in 2027,” a joint statement said.
It added that the project will “support sovereign, physical, and agent-type AI services for companies and industries across Korea, with an eye toward expansion into the Asian region.”
It was not disclosed how much the two companies would invest in the data center.
SK Telecom operates under the same parent company, SK Group, as SK Hynix, which on Monday announced a “multi-year technology partnership” with Nvidia for memory chips.
“This agreement addresses extended development cycles, advanced manufacturing, and capital investments to sustain the global build-out of AI factories, and supports the supply of advanced memory,” their statement said.
“Through this partnership, SK Hynix will diversify into new markets created by Nvidia across AI infrastructure, personal AI, and physical AI through the joint development of memory components for Nvidia hardware,” the company said.
As governments and companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, NVIDIA is worth more than $5 trillion, more than the gross domestic products of Japan and India.
“Please make more.”
A race to build AI data centers has created a global shortage of memory chips, sending profits soaring for manufacturers such as SK Hynix and rival Samsung Electronics, whose union recently agreed to a deal with management on bonuses, averting a strike.
SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won last week vowed to double the production capacity of silicon wafers used to make memory chips.
But he also reiterated his prediction that the shortage could last until 2030, as chip factories will take at least three years to build.
Nvidia’s Huang signed a memory chip on display at the SK Hynix booth at the Computex trade show in Taipei and wrote, “Please make more.”
Upon arriving in South Korea on Friday, Hwang said he had “brought a lot of business to South Korea” and promised new “surprises”.
The California-based company on Monday also announced an AI-related partnership with tech giant Naver and a collaboration with Doosan Group on robotics.
Nvidia is best known for its GPU, a specialized computer chip originally designed to render video game graphics at high speeds.
These chips are the engine behind AI tools, from chatbots to image generators to agents that can perform tasks on your behalf.
Nvidia announced a powerful laptop chip for Windows machines last week, cementing its position in the next-generation AI-integrated consumer PC market.
