Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the company plans to build an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in Seoul. He also said that during his visit to Korea, Nvidia would focus on cooperation with Korean companies on four of this year's new products, including "Vera Rubin."
Huang spoke to reporters Thursday after briefly stepping outside a samgyeopsal restaurant near Hongik University in Seoul's Mapo district, where he was holding a dinner meeting with SK Chairman Tae-won Choi, LG Chairman Kwang-mo Koo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin. "The location of the AI research center we will establish in Korea will probably be Seoul," he said.
Earlier that day, while entering the country through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center in Gangseo district, Huang told reporters that the company was "recruiting personnel to establish a research and development (R&D) center in Korea." The plan is to use the center as a forward base for Nvidia's cooperation in Korea. While locations such as Saemangeum in North Jeolla Province had been mentioned for the center's site, Huang reaffirmed that it would be Seoul.
Through the R&D center, Nvidia plans to strengthen physical AI cooperation with domestic companies including SK, LG and Naver. "Korea is a global manufacturing hub with outstanding robotics capabilities," Huang said. "We will be able to apply Nvidia's physical AI technology to industrial sites."
Huang also foreshadowed that "several surprises" were prepared during this visit. When asked about the specifics, he said, "I have brought four new business opportunities to Korea," adding, "They are Vera, Rubin, RTX Spark and Jetson Thor."
Vera and Rubin are Nvidia's new central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), respectively, and will be released in the second half of this year in the form of the Vera Rubin AI accelerator that combines the two. Nvidia also plans to sell the Vera CPU as a standalone product to expand its AI chip business. RTX Spark is an AI PC product that Huang unveiled this week at "GTC Taipei 2026" held in Taipei, Taiwan. Of the three products, Huang said they "require large amounts of memory," signaling that new market opportunities would open up for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
Jetson Thor is a robotics processor for self-driving cars, and Nvidia is cooperating with Hyundai Motor, LG and others. As Huang aims to strengthen synergy between the company's physical AI and Korean manufacturing during this visit, cooperation such as expanding the adoption of Jetson Thor in Korea is expected to take place.
