Nvidia, Samsung and SK Hynix Set for Mega-Orders as South Korea Finalizes $950 Billion AI Partnership; Lee Jae-myung Bets on AI

TradingKey - The race for AI infrastructure continues to heat up, and South Korea is attempting to use this opportunity to leap from a chipmaking powerhouse to an AI powerhouse.

On July 25, local time, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is currently visiting the United States, attended multiple Silicon Valley industry events in succession and announced that South Korea will comprehensively advance its national AI strategy, hoping to leverage the AI era to transform from a 'technology follower' to a 'global leader.'

Almost simultaneously, South Korean tech companies and the U.S. AI supply chain also announced a series of heavyweight partnerships in quick succession. According to information disclosed by the South Korean Presidential Office, companies including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and NAVER, have partnered with Nvidia ( NVDA ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), OpenAI, Anthropic, and other U.S. tech companies to reach multiple long-term agreements, with the total scale of cooperation reaching $950 billion.

This not only sets a new record for South Korea-U.S. AI industry cooperation, but also further strengthens South Korea's strategic position in the global AI supply chain.

Boosted by the news, South Korean AI supply chain stocks rallied across the board. At Monday's market open, SK Hynix rose nearly 2%, Samsung Electronics gained nearly 3%, and NAVER surged over 8%.

Lee Jae-myung: AI Is New Opportunity for South Korea to Achieve Industrial Leap

At the AI summit held in San Francisco, Lee Jae-myung likened AI to another civilizational leap since humanity's mastery of fire.

He stated that future society will be unable to detach itself from the development of AI, and South Korea hopes to seize the window of opportunity brought by this wave of technological revolution to build AI into a new engine driving national competitiveness.

Lee proposed that South Korea should not only maintain its semiconductor advantage but also hopes to become a major participant in global AI innovation, rather than simply taking on a manufacturing role. He also emphasized that a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment is equally critical for attracting technology investment and fostering industrial innovation.

To attract more international capital and innovative enterprises to South Korea, the government also plans to further optimize the startup environment, including improving the visa system, strengthening cooperation between scientific research institutions and enterprises, and encouraging long-term capital such as pension funds to enter the venture capital market to provide sustained financing support for the AI industry.

South Korea Chip Industry Secures Long-Term Orders as $950 Billion Deal Finalized

During this visit, the focus of market attention is undoubtedly the large-scale cooperation projects collectively announced by South Korean and US enterprises.

According to the South Korean Presidential Office, South Korean companies including Samsung Electronics and SK Group have signed cooperation agreements with US technology firms totaling approximately $950 billion, with the vast majority centering on AI chips, advanced memory, foundry services, and data center construction.

Among these, Samsung Electronics announced a long-term memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Broadcom to cooperate on advanced memory chips, AI accelerators, and foundry services over the coming years, with the agreement valued at approximately $200 billion. Samsung will not only supply high-end HBM products, but will also open up its advanced process and advanced packaging capabilities to provide manufacturing support for Broadcom's next-generation AI chips.

Another even larger cooperation comes from SK Group. According to the released information, SK Group plans to supply approximately $750 billion worth of advanced memory chips to US technology companies, including Nvidia, over the next five years, and conduct long-term cooperation around AI infrastructure.

As global AI servers continue to expand, demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) remains far higher than supply. Long-term orders not only help US tech companies lock in key components, but also mean that SK Hynix's revenue visibility over the next few years will be further enhanced.

In addition to chip procurement, Nvidia is further increasing its investment in South Korea's AI infrastructure.

Nvidia announced that it will jointly promote a cooperation plan valued at over $500 billion with SK Group, covering multiple areas such as AI data centers, AI factories, and next-generation HBM research and development.

According to the plan, SK Telecom will build data centers in South Korea with a total capacity of 2GW, utilizing Nvidia's latest Vera Rubin computing platform and SK Hynix's HBM4 products, with the first project expected to go into operation in 2027.

Meanwhile, Nvidia also announced its participation in the data center expansion project of the South Korean internet company NAVER.

Under the latest plan, the data center jointly built by NAVER and Brookfield will fully adopt Nvidia's GPU platform, with Nvidia providing approximately $1 billion in support, and Brookfield planning to provide up to $9 billion in financing, expanding the total project scale to more than three times the initial plan.

Jensen Huang stated that South Korea, with its world-leading semiconductor industry, mature data center network, and comprehensive manufacturing system, is an important partner in building global AI infrastructure.

South Korea-US AI Alliance Deepens Further

This Silicon Valley AI Summit not only brought together leaders of U.S. AI companies, such as Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, but also attracted South Korean industry representatives, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, and NAVER founder Lee Hae-jin.

Taking this opportunity, the South Korean government officially released the "San Francisco AI Declaration," proposing to establish a closer AI cooperation framework with the United States and build an open AI ecosystem.

For South Korea, this signifies that its national strategy is undergoing a shift.

In the past, South Korea primarily relied on memory chips, consumer electronics, and manufacturing to build its global competitive advantage. Now, as AI becomes the core driving force of future industrial development, South Korea hopes to further expand into computing power infrastructure, AI platforms, and advanced manufacturing to secure a higher-value position in the global AI value chain.