Nvidia, South Korea forge AI alliance powered by 260,000 Blackwell GPUs

Nvidia, the US chipmaker, and South Korea have entered the agreement, aiming to strengthen the AI front in the global tech race.

The deal came forth following a meeting between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Under the deal, Nvidia will supply 260,000 Blackwell GPU chips to South Korea, helping the Asian country to build next-generation AI infrastructure.

Reported by AFP, “Nvidia is working with South Korea to expand the nation's AI infrastructure with over a quarter-million Nvidia GPUs across its sovereign clouds and AI factories.”

Recipients of Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs

Under the government-backed deal, Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai motor group, NAVER Cloud and some other firms would receive these cutting-edge chips.

• Samsung Electronics will get 50,000 chips for its new “AI factory”. According to the Korean tech giant, the deployment of more than 50,000 GPUs would be enough to integrate AI in Samsung’s entire manufacturing.
• Samsung will use Blackwell & Jetson Thor to push factory robotics & extend digital twin tech across its chip, smartphone & appliance production.
• Hyundai Motor Group and SK Group each will also receive 50,000 chips.
• NAVER Cloud, which is the operational facility of South Korea’s largest search engine, will be equipped with 60,000 chips for AI expansion.
• Moreover, 50,000 chips will be provided to Seoul's National AI Computing Centre and to other cloud service and IT providers.

According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang “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.” 

The initiative will enhance South Korea’s AI computing capacity from 65,000 to over 300,000 units, leading to advancements in automotive innovation, manufacturing, and cloud computing.