Nvidia and SK Group are deepening their collaboration in physical artificial intelligence (AI). The plan is to accelerate the realization of an autonomous factory by applying Nvidia's digital twin technology to SK hynix (000660.KS) semiconductor fabs. SK Telecom (017670.KS) is also participating in the project to carry out technology optimization.
According to SK Telecom on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered the keynote address at "GTC Taipei" held in Taiwan the same day. At the event, SK Telecom was introduced as one of Nvidia's key collaboration partners in the manufacturing physical AI sector. A representative case is the deployment of digital twin technology on the manufacturing floor by SK Telecom and SK hynix in semiconductor manufacturing processes, leveraging Nvidia Omniverse. Omniverse, developed by Nvidia, is a collaboration platform for digital twins and 3D simulation.
The project is part of SK hynix's push to achieve its "Autonomous Fab 2030" goal. SK hynix and SK Telecom completed technology verification for applying digital twins to semiconductor fabs last year and plan to roll out commercialization in stages. Digital twin is a technology that recreates actual factories and equipment in a virtual space to verify in advance the impact of process changes and equipment layouts through simulation. Because various scenarios can be tested in a virtual environment, it is drawing attention as a core physical AI technology that reduces trial and error and supports data-driven decision-making.
This is not the first time SK Telecom has appeared in a Huang keynote. At the GTC 2026 keynote held in San Jose, U.S., last March, the company was also introduced as a strategic Nvidia partner alongside Boston Dynamics and others.
SK Telecom plans to build a stable and scalable digital twin environment even in complex, large-data manufacturing settings such as semiconductor fabs. To this end, the company has developed "agentic digital twin modeling" technology that uses Nvidia's agent toolkit to automatically and intelligently process various data — including manufacturing equipment and spatial structures — to fit the digital twin environment. The technology is expected to enhance the efficiency of data conversion, scene optimization and performance improvement during the construction and operation of digital twins on manufacturing floors.
"Semiconductor fabs are one of the most demanding manufacturing environments, combining large-scale 3D data, complex equipment structures and highly sophisticated optimization requirements," said Mike Geyer, Head of Industrial Digital Twin at Nvidia. "SK Telecom has demonstrated a high level of technical capability to apply and validate the Nvidia Omniverse agent toolkit in actual industrial settings under such conditions." Cho Ik-hwan, head of physical AI at SK Telecom, emphasized, "Through our collaboration with Nvidia, we have confirmed that manufacturing digital twins can evolve beyond simple 3D visualization into a physical AI platform in which AI understands and optimizes large-scale 3D data on the manufacturing floor."
