Global chipmaker NVIDIA has announced a large-scale partnership with the Government of South Korea to build one of the world’s most advanced national AI infrastructures. The collaboration—unveiled at the APEC Summit 2025—will involve deploying over 260,000 NVIDIA GPUs through partnerships with South Korea’s industrial leaders including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group, SK Group, and NAVER Cloud.
The initiative marks a major milestone in South Korea’s national technology roadmap, aiming to accelerate breakthroughs in manufacturing, autonomous mobility, semiconductors, and telecommunications through AI-driven systems.
AI Factories: The Next Industrial Revolution
According to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Korea’s technological leadership and manufacturing prowess position it at the centre of the AI industrial revolution.
“Accelerated computing infrastructure will become as essential as power grids and broadband,” Huang said at the announcement.
Under the agreement, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) will initially deploy 50,000 GPUs through national cloud providers NHN Cloud, Kakao Corp., and NAVER Cloud to build sovereign AI infrastructure.
Bae Kyung-hoon, South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, described the collaboration as “an investment in both innovation and sovereignty,” noting that it will reinforce the nation’s industrial competitiveness while driving next-generation AI research.
Industry Giants Join the AI Infrastructure Push
Each of South Korea’s major conglomerates will establish specialized AI factories powered by NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell GPUs and CUDA-X computing frameworks.
Samsung Electronics will build a semiconductor-focused AI factory powered by 50,000 GPUs to enhance chip design, robotics, and smart manufacturing. The facility will integrate NVIDIA Omniverse for simulation-driven design and predictive maintenance.
“From supplying DRAM to NVIDIA in 1995 to now co-developing AI factories, we’re proud to continue this transformative journey,” said Jay Y. Lee, Executive Chairman of Samsung Electronics.Hyundai Motor Group will deploy another 50,000 GPUs for AI-driven mobility and autonomous systems. The company will invest $3 billion in building an AI technology centre and application hub for connected vehicles.
“This partnership is a pivotal step forward in shaping Korea’s intelligent mobility future,” said Euisun Chung, Executive Chair of Hyundai Motor Group.SK Group will establish an AI factory housing 50,000 GPUs to accelerate semiconductor research and robotics. Subsidiaries SK Hynix and SK Telecom will leverage the system for chip design, digital twins, and advanced AI agent development.
NAVER Cloud will deploy over 60,000 NVIDIA GPUs to expand its AI capacity, focusing on large language models (LLMs) and enterprise-grade physical AI systems for industrial automation.
Positioning Korea as a Global AI Powerhouse
The combined initiative—bringing together government, academia, and industry—underscores South Korea’s ambition to become a global leader in AI infrastructure, mirroring Japan’s Moonshot AI vision and Singapore’s AI-Verify model.
The effort will not only create thousands of new jobs but also strengthen South Korea’s edge in quantum research, semiconductor design, and high-performance AI computing.
By collaborating with NVIDIA, the country is positioning itself as a vital hub in the global AI ecosystem—where accelerated computing, sovereign data infrastructure, and industrial intelligence converge.
