Nvidia on Monday unveiled a series of multi-year partnerships with South Korea’s largest technology groups, including SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Naver, LG Group, Doosan Group and Hyundai Motor Group, in a push to secure critical AI chip supplies and accelerate the development of large-scale AI infrastructure.
The agreements were announced during a visit to Seoul by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and centre on advanced memory development, AI data centres, cloud infrastructure and industrial AI applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The most significant deal is a multi-year technology partnership with SK Hynix, one of Nvidia’s key suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems. The agreement will see the companies jointly develop next-generation memory technologies for AI data centres while helping ensure supply keeps pace with growing demand.
Following a meeting with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, Huang said: “SK Hynix has been Nvidia’s largest memory partner. SK Hynix will continue to be Nvidia’s largest memory partner.” He added that Nvidia already purchases “billions and billions of dollars” of memory from the company each year and expected that figure to grow substantially.
Huang said the SK Hynix agreement runs for more than two years and could be extended further. The partnership will support Nvidia’s expanding AI portfolio, which now spans robotics, personal computing and AI supercomputers.
South Korean internet company Naver and mobile operator SK Telecom will use Nvidia technology to build large-scale AI infrastructure. Naver plans to expand its AI capacity from an initial 55-megawatt deployment to gigawatt scale, while SK Telecom intends to build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud platform, with its first AI data centre expected to come online in 2027.
In a statement, Naver founder and chairman Haejin Lee said: “By building on the NVIDIA DSX platform, we can help customers move from AI experimentation to production-scale AI factories that power models, agents and real-world services.”
Nvidia is extending its partnerships beyond cloud infrastructure. Reuters reported that LG Group is working with Nvidia on robotics, electronics, data centre systems and humanoid AI technologies, while Hyundai Motor Group will deepen collaboration on autonomous mobility, robotics and AI-powered manufacturing.
Industry analysts view the agreements as further evidence of the growing strategic importance of advanced memory technologies. Ryu Young-ho, senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, told Reuters that the SK Hynix partnership reinforced the shift of memory chips from commodity products towards more customised, customer-specific technologies.
