Nvidia Clinches Deals with South Korean Giants, Including the SK Group, to Advance AI Boom

Nvidia (NVDA) announced a series of deals in South Korea with tech giants, including SK Hynix and Naver, on Monday, as it looks to secure crucial memory chips to power its AI ambitions and attract new customers. The agreements come during a high-profile trip by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to South Korea that began on Friday, which has seen him dine on grilled pork belly and local spirit soju with the country's top corporate bosses, throw a baseball pitch, and meet with a well-known gamer.

Nvidia and its partners, which also included SK Telecom and conglomerate Doosan Group, did not disclose the value of the deals.

SK Hynix Partnership

SK Group, South Korea's second-largest family-owned conglomerate, said its SK Hynix and SK Telecom arms had agreed on deals with Nvidia. Memory chip maker SK Hynix signed a multi-year technology partnership that will see it commit to developing advanced types of memory for global AI data centres.

SK Hynix and Nvidia said the agreement, which comes as memory chip makers have been straining to keep up with demand, would enable supply to keep pace with Nvidia's plans, which have expanded to robotics, personal computers, and AI supercomputers.

Huang said SK Hynix's plan to double its memory wafer capacity by 2030 would not be enough to meet the surging AI demand. "SK Hynix has been Nvidia's largest memory partner. SK Hynix will continue to be Nvidia's largest memory partner," Huang said after a meeting with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

Huang said the deal with SK Hynix, a rival to Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology, was for more than two years, with the option to keep extending. "We already procure and we buy from SK Hynix already billions and billions of dollars each year, and it's going to grow substantially," he said.

Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said the SK Hynix-Nvidia partnership reinforced the view that memory chips were evolving from a commodity product into a more customer-specific business.

Other Deals

SK Telecom said it would build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea using Nvidia technology, with the first AI data centre to come online in 2027. Nvidia said internet giant Naver and conglomerate Doosan would also use its technology to help build AI data centres.

Doosan, which is developing robots and makes materials used in Nvidia's most powerful Blackwell chips, said it expected its energy solution to be used in Nvidia's data centre platforms and for it to use the US firm's physical AI technology as well.

Nvidia is also partnering with LG Group on electronics, mechanical systems, and AI for humanoid robots, Huang said after a meeting with the tech conglomerate's Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. Huang said the pair were also working on the architecture of future data centres including cooling, power delivery, and the entire design and building of the data centres.

Hyundai Motor Group Collaboration

After a meeting with Hyundai Motor Group's Executive Chair Euisun Chung, Huang said Nvidia would deepen its partnership with Hyundai across a range of AI initiatives, including autonomous mobility, robotics, and AI-powered manufacturing. He also highlighted opportunities to accelerate the development of industrial robotics, saying Nvidia and Hyundai would work together to bring AI to "all forms of mobility" and deepen collaboration on robotics for practical industrial applications.

Huang referred to Hyundai Motor Group's planned AI data centre in Saemangeum as an "AI Valley" akin to California's Silicon Valley and said he was "very happy to build Nvidia in Saemangeum."

Government AI Project

South Korea's tech ministry said in a separate statement that it plans to secure 9 704 GPUs for a state AI project worth 2.08 trillion won in 2026, including 2 016 of Nvidia's Vera Rubin GPUs.

Market Context and Stock Rout

South Korea is an Asian manufacturing powerhouse, home to major producers of chips, electronics, cars, and ships, and the AI boom has provided a windfall for its economy and stock market. The country's benchmark Kospi index has doubled in six months as heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung benefitted from the AI wave, but closed 8.3% lower on Monday after robust US jobs data fanned bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike this year and sparked a rout in global tech stocks. Shares in Samsung and SK Hynix closed down 10.2% and 7.7% respectively.

When asked about the global chip stock rout, Huang waved off concerns. "Everybody should be very excited; they can now buy stock at a cheaper price, and it's absolutely true that the future of AI is very bright."

Samsung Electronics' co-CEO and head of its chip division, Jun Young-hyun, said he discussed cooperation on next-generation foundry chips with Huang, adding that the two companies held extensive discussions on a range of chip products, including autonomous driving chips, high-bandwidth memory HBM5 chips, as well as Groq's AI LP30 chips, which were scheduled to be shipped in the second half of this year.

Market Sentiment: 

The sentiment is strongly positive on the strategic front, with Nvidia deepening its relationships across South Korea's industrial landscape. The multi-year SK Hynix partnership secures critical memory supply for Nvidia's AI chips — a key constraint as demand outpaces capacity. Huang's comment that SK Hynix's planned capacity doubling by 2030 "would not be enough" underscores the scale of expected demand. The partnerships with SK Telecom, Naver, Doosan, LG, and Hyundai extend Nvidia's reach beyond data centres into robotics, autonomous mobility, AI cloud infrastructure, and humanoid robots. For South Korea, these deals cement its position as a critical node in the global AI supply chain. The 8.3% Kospi drop — driven by US rate hike fears — created a disconnect between strong fundamentals and weak stock prices. Huang's "buy the dip" comment reflects confidence that AI spending will continue regardless of near-term macro volatility. The Samsung discussions on foundry chips and HBM5 suggest Nvidia is maintaining optionality in its memory supply chain, not putting all eggs in the SK Hynix basket. Rising gasoline prices and inflation concerns could pressure tech valuations in the near term, but the long-term AI infrastructure build-out appears intact. For investors, the pullback in Korean chip stocks following the jobs data may present an entry point, as the underlying demand drivers remain unchanged. Nvidia's ability to lock in partnerships across multiple Korean conglomerates — from memory chips to robotics to data centres — demonstrates the breadth of its AI ecosystem. The Saemangeum "AI Valley" project, supported by Hyundai and Nvidia, could become a regional hub for AI infrastructure. Overall, this trip was a strategic masterclass in alliance-building, and the deals announced will likely generate returns for years. The market's short-term selloff is a volatility event, not a fundamental shift. The long-term AI boom continues, and Nvidia is embedding itself deeply into Asia's industrial powerhouse.

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