The Zhitong Finance App learned that South Korea's SK Group and Nvidia (NVDA.US) have expanded their partnership and announced the launch of a cooperative initiative spanning AI data centers and next-generation memory chips with a scale of more than 500 billion US dollars.
SK Group is the parent company of Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix (SKHY.US). The group said the partnership includes the recently announced plans of SK Telecom to build a 2 gigawatt (GW) AI Cloud (AI Cloud) in Korea.
The AI cloud will use the Nvidia DSX platform and deploy US Nvidia Vera Rubin accelerated computing powered by SK Hynix HBM4 chips. The first AI factory (data center) is scheduled to be put into operation in 2027.
SK Hynix will also establish a long-term AI memory chip partnership with Nvidia. The agreement enables Nvidia to secure a steady supply of next-generation AI memory chips.
The two companies will jointly develop and optimize next-generation AI storage solutions, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), to meet evolving infrastructure requirements from big language model (LLM) training to agent AI (agentic AI) and physical AI (physical AI).
SK Group has signed an agreement worth $750 billion, which includes the latest collaboration with Nvidia.
Nvidia founder and CEO Hwang In-hoon announced this partnership and many other collaborations at the Korea AI Summit in San Francisco. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and a number of top Korean business leaders attended the summit.
Korean business leaders from Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, and internet giant Naver met Hwang In-hoon at Nvidia's headquarters.
Nvidia has announced plans to invest $1 billion to acquire 4.5% of Naver's shares.
Meanwhile, Samsung has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to supply memory chips and foundry chips to Broadcom (AVGO.US) by 2030 in a deal worth over $200 billion.
Overall, South Korea has announced new $950 billion AI initiatives involving Samsung, SK Group, and US tech companies.
The report pointed out that in his speech at the event, Lee Jae-myung said that South Korea will cooperate with global technology companies to lead a new AI era 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 for technical cooperation with the US.
Prior to attending the summit, in addition to Hwang In-hoon, Lee Jae-myung also met separately with OpenAI CEO Sam Ultrman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won said, “By utilizing SK Hynix's AI memory chip capabilities and SK Telecom's AI infrastructure capabilities, SK will cooperate with Nvidia to build a world-class AI factory to help Korea surpass its role as a leading AI user and become a global hub for AI innovation.”
Choi Tae-won revealed that Broadcom CEO Chen Fuyang also told him that Broadcom's demand for memory chips may exceed available supply, and as Anthropic shifts from developing AI models to building computing capabilities, the company is regularly confirming future chip supply.
Choi Tae-won added that OpenAI will require huge computing power and has asked SK to supply the chip directly to the ChatGPT developer.
Additionally, Choi Tae-won said that Anthropic is building his “computing power,” but he did not elaborate. This could refer to a plan previously reported by Reuters that the AI company is exploring the possibility of designing its own chips.
An Anthropic spokesperson told the news agency that the company has been exploring various options and using a range of chips to enable diverse computational pathways.
Anthropic CEO Amodei did not comment on the reported plans, but said the company had signed supply agreements with Samsung and SK Hynix, but did not provide further details.
In May of this year, Anthropic closed the financing with a post-investment valuation of $965 billion and designated memory chip makers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron (MU.US) as partners.
Last month, as part of a $576 billion investment strategy, President Lee Jae-myung unveiled three large-scale state-driven projects, including Samsung and SK Hynix to build semiconductor production clusters, physical AI ecosystems, and AI data centers.