Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has arrived in South Korea for the first time in fifteen years, unveiling ambitious new plans to strengthen partnerships with leading Korean tech giants — including Hyundai Motor, Samsung, SK, and Naver. The visit coincides with this week’s APEC Summit 2025, where Nvidia and the South Korean government announced an expanded collaboration to enhance the nation’s AI infrastructure and physical AI capabilities.
The announcement follows recent U.S. technology agreements with Japan and South Korea, aimed at reinforcing strategic ties and driving cooperation across emerging fields such as AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology, and 6G communications.
As part of the new partnership, South Korea will acquire more than 260,000 of Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPUs to meet surging AI demand. Of these, approximately 50,000 GPUs will power public projects, including the creation of national AI foundation models and a government-backed AI data center. The remaining 200,000+ GPUs will be distributed to major companies such as Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor Group, and Naver, supporting AI-driven manufacturing innovation and the development of sector-specific AI models.
Samsung and Nvidia unite for AI factory and AI-RAN innovation
Samsung revealed plans to establish an AI Megafactory in collaboration with Nvidia, designed to embed artificial intelligence across every stage of its semiconductor, mobile, and robotics manufacturing. Powered by over 50,000 Nvidia GPUs and built on the Nvidia Omniverse platform, the Megafactory will create a smart production ecosystem capable of analyzing, predicting, and optimizing operations in real time.
The two companies, partners for more than 25 years, are also joining forces to develop HBM4 — a next-generation high-bandwidth memory architecture engineered for future AI workloads.
In addition, Nvidia will collaborate with Samsung, South Korea’s three major telecom providers — SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus — along with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), to co-develop AI-RAN, an advanced network technology integrating AI into mobile base stations.
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, the initiative aims to improve network performance, enhance energy efficiency, and reduce battery consumption. Under the new agreement, Nvidia and Korea’s leading research institutions will jointly develop next-generation AI-RAN systems and establish a global testbed to accelerate innovation in 6G and intelligent networking.
