▲ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang collaborates with major South Korean companies to build AI factories
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed strong confidence in South Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) industry on Monday (June 8), stating during the final leg of his visit to the country that he has "brought hundreds of billions of dollars in potential business to South Korea."
Emphasizing that massive economic opportunities could be created through major partnerships with SK Hynix and SK Telecom, he also stressed the need to expand investments in South Korean AI startups and support their global expansion.
Nvidia held the "Korea AI Ecosystem Reception" on Monday evening at the Yeongbingwan (guesthouse) of the Shilla Hotel in Seoul.
The event was held behind closed doors, and Huang met with reporters just before the meeting to share his thoughts on the achievements of his visit and the direction of future cooperation.
Huang emphasized at the meeting that South Korea is the optimal partner for the AI era, tracing back a 25-year relationship.
"Nvidia has spent most of its 33-year history with South Korea," he said. "South Korea has leaped to the world's top level in heavy industry, electronics, and now software, and it is now also the world's best in AI."
He added, "There is no other country like this in the world."
Huang cited semiconductors, manufacturing, and energy infrastructure as South Korea's key strengths.
"South Korea is world-class even in energy, which is the foundation of AI infrastructure," he said, mentioning the country's energy competitiveness, including nuclear power.
He also pointed to South Korea's geopolitical location, tech-friendly culture, and global soft power represented by K-pop and K-beauty as favorable conditions for expanding the AI ecosystem.
Repeatedly emphasizing that "now is South Korea's time" and that the country must seize this opportunity, Huang said, "South Korea has the right cultural foundation, industrial foundation, and geopolitical position. Now is the golden opportunity to leverage them."
Huang revealed that the achievement of his visit was bringing the largest-ever business scale to South Korea.
"The real surprise gift of this visit is that we brought an immense amount of business to South Korea," he said. "Through major partnerships with SK Hynix and SK Telecom, we have potentially brought hundreds of billions of dollars in business to South Korea's future."
While stating that the specific details of the contracts cannot be disclosed yet, he said, "The business we brought to SK Hynix is not of an ordinary scale. It is at a level the world has never seen before."
He went further to directly urge investment in South Korea's AI startup ecosystem.
"South Korea is a truly wonderful country to invest in the future of AI," Huang said. "When stock prices go down, it's a good time to buy, because you can buy at a discount."
He added, "I have very strong confidence in South Korea's AI and South Korea's future."
Indeed, Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon met with reporters after the meeting and said, "To summarize tonight's entire meeting in one word, it was 'investment.'"
It was reported that Huang directly called out the attending investment firms and strongly urged them to invest in the startups invited to the meeting.
"Many investment firms, including SoftBank, attended, which must have been a great boost for the startups," Kim said.
The meeting was attended by 18 companies, including major South Korean conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Electronics, Naver, and Krafton, alongside AI startups like Upstage, NC AI, FriendlyAI, Twelve Labs, Pyler, and Nota, and robotics and physical AI companies such as Doosan Robotics, Realworld, Robotis, NdotLight, and A-Robot.
Representing South Korea's major AI-related industries, including semiconductors, AI, gaming, and robotics, it is unusual for Nvidia to gather such a wide range of domestic ecosystem participants in a single visit.
During the meeting, discussions reportedly covered generative AI, sovereign AI, AI semiconductor infrastructure, global expansion, and ways to cooperate within the startup ecosystem.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, also held a separate meeting with Huang before the main event to discuss importing 260,000 GPUs, building an AI factory based on the Vera Rubin NVL72 within the year, and establishing an Nvidia R&D center in South Korea.
"I hope today's reception will serve as a stepping stone for our country's AI capabilities, including physical AI—the next generation of AI—to leap to the next level," Deputy Prime Minister Bae said.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.