Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has completed a five-day visit to South Korea, signaling the country's potential to evolve from a mere memory supplier to a strategic hub for AI infrastructure and physical AI testing.
According to industry sources, Huang departed from the Gimpo Business Aviation Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on the morning of June 9. He expressed his satisfaction with the visit, stating, "It was really great," and added, "I look forward to coming back to Korea." During his stay, which began on June 5, he met with major domestic companies including Samsung Electronics, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, Doosan, and Naver.
Huang's extended stay in South Korea was unprecedented. Throughout his visit, he engaged in business meetings and public events, including gatherings over Korean barbecue and fried chicken, as well as a visit to a baseball stadium, enhancing his presence among local consumers and the general public. His previous meeting with Lee Jae-Yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, known as the "Kkanbu meeting," had a significant impact, reflecting his intention to strengthen ties in Korea.
The scope of business discussions has also broadened. NVIDIA and SK have agreed to expand their collaboration on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply to include next-generation memory and AI factory infrastructure. SK Hynix is a key supplier of memory for NVIDIA's AI accelerators. The two companies plan to extend their cooperation to memory for AI supercomputers, central processing units (CPUs), AI PCs, and robotics platforms.
With Samsung Electronics, NVIDIA is currently collaborating on the production of autonomous driving chips and AI accelerators, with discussions on long-term cooperation for next-generation HBM technologies like HBM4E and HBM5. This indicates NVIDIA's intention to strengthen its HBM partnership with SK Hynix while keeping options open for collaboration with Samsung on foundry and next-generation memory.
Collaboration with LG Group has emerged as a key agenda, focusing on robotics and data center partnerships. The plan aims to connect NVIDIA's robotics platform with LG's robots, LG CNS's industrial platforms, and LG Innotek's sensing components.
Discussions with Hyundai Motor Group revolved around autonomous driving, robotics, and smart manufacturing. Potential collaborations with Doosan were also mentioned, focusing on collaborative robots, energy, and data center infrastructure.
Industry analysts suggest that NVIDIA, headquartered in Taiwan, views South Korea as a central axis for its production ecosystem. The strategy appears to involve leveraging memory, foundry, manufacturing, robotics, and platform companies to establish a testing ground for AI infrastructure and physical AI.
Experts believe that South Korean companies are now positioned as serious contenders in the AI landscape. While integration into NVIDIA's AI ecosystem presents opportunities, it also carries dependency risks. If South Korea remains focused solely on expanding HBM supply and securing AI infrastructure contracts, it may only serve as a supporting partner for NVIDIA's platform. Conversely, if it develops capabilities in manufacturing AI, robotics, and data center operations, South Korea could emerge as a testing ground and strategic partner in the AI era.
Professor Hwang Yong-sik of Sejong University stated, "Our country is unique in having both an AI memory supply chain and a foundation in manufacturing and robotics, making it a highly attractive partner for NVIDIA as it expands AI into industrial settings. South Korea is being elevated to a global AI testing ground."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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