South Korea Invests $950 Billion All in AI! SK Hynix (SKHY.US) and Other Korean Companies Join Forces with US Tech Giants to Reshape the Global Computing Power Landscape

According to Zhitong Finance APP, South Korea's SK Group has expanded its partnership with Nvidia (NVDA.US), announcing the launch of a collaboration initiative spanning AI data centers and next-generation storage chips, with a scale exceeding $500 billion.

SK Group is the parent company of South Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix (SKHY.US). The group said that the cooperation includes the recently announced SK Telecom plan to build a 2 gigawatt (GW) level AI Cloud in South Korea.

This AI Cloud will utilize Nvidia's DSX platform and deploy Nvidia Vera Rubin accelerated computing powered by SK Hynix's HBM4 chips, with the first AI factory (data center) scheduled to be operational in 2027.

SK Hynix will also establish a long-term AI storage chip partnership with Nvidia. This agreement enables Nvidia to secure a stable supply of next-generation AI storage chips.

The two companies will jointly develop and optimize next-generation AI storage solutions, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), to meet the evolving infrastructure needs ranging from large language model (LLM) training, agentic AI, to physical AI.

SK Group has signed agreements worth $750 billion, including the latest cooperation with Nvidia.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced this partnership and several other collaborations at the Korea AI Summit held in San Francisco. South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung and several top Korean business leaders attended the summit.

Business leaders from Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, and internet giant Naver met with Jensen Huang at Nvidia headquarters.

Nvidia has announced plans to invest $1 billion to acquire a 4.5% stake in Naver.

Meanwhile, Samsung has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), agreeing to supply storage and foundry chips to Broadcom (AVGO.US) in a deal worth over $200 billion by 2030.

Overall, South Korea has announced a new $950 billion AI initiative involving Samsung, SK Group, and U.S. tech companies.

The report points out that during his speech at the event, Lee Jae-myung said that South Korea will work with global tech companies to lead the new era of AI and provide its “dynamic AI ecosystem” to expand the global market for industrial and personal AI applications.

He unveiled the "San Francisco AI Declaration," outlining South Korea's AI ambitions in technological cooperation with the United States.

Before attending the summit, Lee Jae-myung also met separately with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, in addition to Jensen Huang.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stated: "By leveraging SK Hynix's AI storage chip capabilities and SK Telecom's AI infrastructure capabilities, SK will cooperate with Nvidia to build world-class AI factories, helping South Korea move beyond its role as a leading AI adopter to become a global hub for AI innovation."

Chey Tae-won revealed that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan also told him that Broadcom's demand for memory chips may exceed the available supply, and as Anthropic shifts from developing AI models to building computing capacity, the company is regularly checking future chip supply situations.

Chey Tae-won added that OpenAI will require massive computing power and has already requested SK to supply chips directly to this ChatGPT developer.

Additionally, Chey Tae-won said Anthropic is building its own "computing power," but did not give more details. This may refer to a previously reported plan by Reuters that the AI company is exploring the possibility of designing its own chips.

An Anthropic spokesperson told the news outlet that the company has been exploring a variety of options and is utilizing a range of chips for diversified computing approaches.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei did not comment on the plans mentioned in the report, but said the company has signed supply agreements with Samsung and SK Hynix, though did not provide further details.

In May of this year, Anthropic completed a funding round at a post-money valuation of $965 billion and designated Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron (MU.US) as storage chip manufacturing partners.

Last month, as part of a $576 billion investment strategy, President Lee Jae-myung unveiled three mega-projects driven by the state, including Samsung and SK Hynix's projects to build semiconductor production clusters, physical AI ecosystems, and AI data centers.