By bizn_fun 
South Korea – which is already home to major semiconductor companies and vehicle manufacturers – wants to become a regional AI hub.
The country is the ideal place to expand AI infrastructure, according to the Nvidia CEO, because of its access to energy and land, and its ability to construct factories.
President Lee Jae Myung said he would prioritise AI investment after coming into office in the face of US tariffs.
With the Nvidia deal, the South Korean government plans to build computing infrastructure that it will control, a term known as “sovereign AI”.
More than 50,000 Nvidia chips will power data centres at the National AI Computing Center and facilities owned by South Korean companies like Kakao and Naver.
The chip giant is dependent on the tightly-knit supply chains that run through the Asia Pacific region.
Nvidia is primarily a chip designer, and so outsources most of its physical production to manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix and TSMC.
TSMC has been a critical partner for Nvidia, making the company’s most advanced AI chips, including its flagship Blackwell series.
Samsung makes parts for Nvidia’s H20 chips, a scaled-down processor made for the Chinese market under US export rules.
National security experts and some politicians have long voiced concerns about the US selling AI chips to China, saying that Beijing could use them to gain an advantage in AI, as well as in military applications.
Analysts say that US efforts to block China’s access to advanced computer chips have fostered innovation within China.
Both Huawei and Alibaba have unveiled their own chips that they say can rival Nvidia’s products for the Chinese market.
Beijing has also reportedly prohibited local firms from buying from Nvidia, urging them to buy from Chinese chipmakers to give its domestic tech industry a boost.
“We respect deeply the capabilities of China,” Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said on Friday.
Nvidia’s share price was this week further boosted by a wave of new deals, including partnerships with the US Department of Energy, Nokia, Uber, and Stellantis – moves aimed at reassuring investors that AI investments will deliver returns.
Hopes of a revival in China sales, following trade talks between Presidents Trump and Xi, also lifted its share price.
Additional reporting by Jaltson Akkanath Chummar