A national program backed by Samsung, Hyundai, and the government will use 250,000 NVIDIA GPUs to expand AI factories and quantum research.
At the APEC Summit in Gyeongju, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced a landmark partnership with South Korea to deploy over 250,000 GPUs for sovereign AI infrastructure. The initiative, one of the largest national AI investments to date, involves major Korean corporations and government bodies, signaling a strategic push to embed AI across the economy.
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) will lead the deployment of up to 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs through cloud providers like NHN Cloud and NAVER Cloud, starting with 13,000 Blackwell GPUs. This sovereign AI program aims to build a self-reliant ecosystem, reducing dependency on foreign tech while accelerating local innovation.
Private sector commitments are equally ambitious. Samsung, SK Group, and Hyundai Motor Group are each constructing AI factories with 50,000 GPUs, while NAVER plans to deploy over 60,000. These facilities will power advancements in manufacturing, mobility, and robotics, forming the backbone of Korea’s industrial transformation.
Foundational research is also a priority. MSIT is collaborating with LG AI Research and others on sovereign AI foundation models, using NVIDIA’s NeMo software and Nemotron datasets to develop Korean-language models with enhanced reasoning. LG and NVIDIA are further supporting healthcare AI, including cancer diagnosis tools built with the MONAI framework.
Quantum computing and next-gen networks are part of the broader strategy. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) will establish a Center of Excellence using NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform for hybrid quantum research. Simultaneously, partnerships with Samsung and SK Telecom focus on AI-RAN and 6G infrastructure to optimize energy use for robotics.
To nurture startups, NVIDIA is expanding its Inception program with a new alliance, offering access to accelerated computing and venture capital support. A dedicated Center of Excellence with RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs will help build physical AI applications, while training programs from the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute aim to upskill the local workforce.
This initiative builds on South Korea’s tech legacy, from esports to rapid industrialization. By integrating AI into sovereign clouds, quantum labs, and factories, the country is positioning itself at the forefront of the global AI race, with implications for economic resilience and technological sovereignty.
The scale of Korea’s AI push underscores a global trend toward national AI strategies. As industries worldwide adopt intelligent systems, this partnership highlights how public-private collaborations can drive large-scale infrastructure projects, potentially setting a blueprint for other nations.