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| (Photo by Nvidia) |
At the recent APEC CEO Summit, NVIDIA announced a sweeping collaboration with South Korea to build sovereign AI infrastructure across the nation. The initiative will deploy hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs into sovereign clouds and AI factories, powering industries from automotive and manufacturing to telecommunications.
“Korea’s leadership in technology and manufacturing positions it at the heart of the AI industrial revolution — where accelerated computing infrastructure becomes as vital as power grids and broadband,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Just as Korea’s physical factories have inspired the world with sophisticated ships, cars, chips and electronics, the nation can now produce intelligence as a new export that will drive global transformation.”
South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, Bae Kyung-hoon, echoed this sentiment: “Now that AI has gone beyond mere innovation and become the foundation of future industries, South Korea stands at the threshold of transformation.”
Government-led sovereign AI push
The South Korean government plans to deploy up to 50,000 new NVIDIA GPUs to support sovereign AI programs for businesses and research groups. The first phase includes 13,000 NVIDIA Blackwell and other GPUs through providers such as NAVER Cloud, NHN Cloud, and Kakao.
This expansion also includes the creation of a National AI Computing Center, giving startups, researchers, and organizations access to sovereign infrastructure for training models and building new applications.
NVIDIA is further collaborating with Samsung, SK Telecom, ETRI, KT, LGU+, and Yonsei University on AI-RAN and 6G network research. This work aims to shift computing tasks from devices to network base stations, reducing battery drain and lowering costs across sovereign AI services.
Major corporations build AI factories
Samsung’s AI factory
NVIDIA and Samsung are building a new AI factory that will run more than 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs, connecting chip manufacturing with accelerated computing. The system will enable predictive maintenance, process improvements, and data-driven production methods.
Samsung will leverage NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries, alongside tools from Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens, to accelerate circuit design workflows. It will also use NVIDIA Omniverse to create digital twins of factories for real-time simulation and logistics planning.
Additionally, Samsung is developing large language models across hundreds of millions of devices, expanding into robotics with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, NVIDIA Cosmos, and the Jetson Thor edge platform.
SK Group’s expansion
SK Group is building an AI factory with more than 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs, expected to be completed by 2027. The facility will provide GPU-as-a-service offerings aligned with South Korea’s sovereign AI strategy.
SK Telecom is developing an industrial AI cloud using NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs, supporting semiconductor manufacturing and digital twins. Meanwhile, SK hynix is using NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo for chip design simulations and autonomous fab digital twins.
To support workers, SKT is creating a foundation model called A.X., powered by NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA AI Enterprise.
Hyundai Motor Group
NVIDIA and Hyundai Motor Group are investing about $3 billion in AI factories for autonomous driving, robotics, and factory automation. Hyundai will use NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor for in-vehicle AI systems, alongside Omniverse Enterprise for digital twins of factories.
These initiatives will establish an NVIDIA AI Technology Center and Hyundai’s Physical AI Application Center, training a new generation of AI talent.
Growth of sovereign AI models
- NAVER Cloud: will deploy more than 60,000 GPUs to build industry-specific AI models for shipbuilding and public safety.
- Ministry of Science and ICT: leading a Sovereign AI Foundation Models project using NVIDIA NeMo and Nemotron datasets, with partners including LG AI Research, NC AI, SK Telecom, and Upstage.
- LG AI Research: advancing healthcare applications with its EXAONE models and supporting startups and researchers.
Quantum and scientific research
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) will integrate NVIDIA accelerated computing into its sixth national supercomputer, HANGANG. The project will explore NVQLink, an open architecture connecting quantum processors with GPU clusters, and develop physics-informed AI tools using PhysicsNeMo.
NVIDIA is also supporting startups through the NVIDIA Inception program and participating in South Korea’s N-Up AI incubation program, led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
Final thoughts
South Korea’s sovereign AI strategy, powered by NVIDIA, represents one of the most ambitious national AI infrastructure projects in the world. By combining government initiatives, corporate investment, and academic research, the country is positioning itself as a global leader in sovereign AI — where intelligence itself becomes a new export.
