Nvidia will build a hub for "AI factories," the core infrastructure expected to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) era, in Korea. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also expressed his intention to participate in the AI data center that Hyundai Motor Group will construct in Saemangeum.
Huang met successively with SK (034730) Group Chairman Tae-won Choi, LG (003550) Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo, Hyundai Motor (005380) Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung, and Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin on Wednesday, jointly announcing AI factory business cooperation plans with each company. Including Doosan (000150), five Korean companies will mobilize their major affiliates to supply core technologies to Nvidia while also serving as demand sources for the AI factories to be completed through this effort.
The AI factory presented by Huang is a so-called "AI production plant" that expands existing data centers and internalizes the technologies needed to provide various AI services, ranging from industrial site data and sovereign AI models to autonomous vehicles, telecommunications, and robots.
When Chairman Chung of Hyundai Motor Group, which will concentrate related capabilities in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, requested his participation, Huang in particular called Saemangeum Korea's "AI Valley" and stressed, "I answered (Chung) that I would do so."
He also showed his willingness to accelerate AI chip cooperation, saying it was "not enough" in response to Chairman Choi's announcement that SK hynix would double its memory production capacity by 2030. With Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, he advanced discussions on the foundry (contract chip manufacturing) of next-generation language processing units (LPU) and autonomous driving chips, along with memory.
