South Korea Deploys 250K NVIDIA GPUs for AI Infrastructure

NVIDIA has announced a sweeping collaboration with South Korea to deploy over 250,000 GPUs across the nation's AI infrastructure. This effort, involving both public and private sectors, is designed to fuel economic growth and innovation in key industries like automotive, manufacturing, and telecommunications. The move comes as global leaders gather in Korea for the APEC Summit, highlighting the strategic importance of AI in national development.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's CEO, emphasized that accelerated computing is now as critical as traditional utilities. He noted that Korea's legacy in manufacturing ships, cars, and electronics positions it to export 'intelligence' as a new commodity. Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon stated that this infrastructure expansion will reinforce Korea's strengths and help it become one of the world's top three AI powerhouses.

The Ministry of Science and ICT is accelerating plans to deploy up to 50,000 of the latest NVIDIA GPUs for sovereign AI development. Initial deployments include 13,000 Blackwell GPUs by partners like NAVER Cloud, NHN Cloud, and Kakao Corp. This infrastructure will support research institutes, startups, and companies in building AI models and applications, aligning with Korea's national strategy to boost AI capabilities.

In parallel, NVIDIA is working with industry giants on AI-RAN and 6G infrastructure. Collaborations with Samsung, SK Telecom, and academic institutions aim to develop low-power network technologies that offload GPU tasks to base stations, reducing costs and extending battery life. This could revolutionize mobile and IoT devices by making AI computations more efficient.

Major Korean corporations are building AI factories with tens of thousands of GPUs. Samsung is using NVIDIA technologies for semiconductor manufacturing and home robotics, while SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group are investing in digital twins and smart factories. Hyundai's partnership includes a $3 billion initiative to advance physical AI, featuring new technology centers and regional data hubs.

Beyond infrastructure, the partnership extends to language models and quantum computing. The Sovereign AI Foundation Models project will leverage NVIDIA's NeMo and Nemotron to develop reasoning models with local data. Additionally, KISTI is establishing a Center of Excellence with NVIDIA to advance quantum-GPU supercomputing, focusing on error correction and hybrid applications.

To foster innovation, NVIDIA and its partners are launching a startup alliance through the Inception program. Startups will gain access to computing resources, software, and expertise, supported by venture capital firms and government programs like N-Up AI. This initiative aims to accelerate the growth of next-generation companies in Korea's evolving tech landscape.