NVIDIA Backs South Korea’s AI Expansion with Over 260,000 GPUs in Landmark K-AI Drive

South Korea is about to become home to one of the largest concentrations of AI computing power outside the United States. NVIDIA has announced a sweeping series of partnerships with the South Korean government and some of the country’s biggest industrial names — Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and NAVER — that would see more than 260,000 of its latest GPUs deployed across the country’s sovereign clouds and AI factories. The figures come from NVIDIA corporate communications and major newswire reporting.

The scale is striking. South Korea’s cumulative AI chip deployment should rise from roughly 65,000 GPUs to over 300,000 under the new agreements — an increase of more than 360% — positioning the country as a serious rival to established AI infrastructure hubs in Europe and Asia.

What Is the K-AI Vision?

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT is leading the government’s side of the initiative under the banner of the K-AI vision, a national strategy to build sovereign AI capabilities and reduce reliance on foreign cloud providers. The ministry plans to deploy up to 50,000 of NVIDIA’s latest GPUs through the National AI Computing Centre and domestic cloud providers NHN Cloud, Kakao Corp and NAVER Cloud.

NVIDIA’s chief executive Jensen Huang has personally led the South Korea push, making multiple visits to the country and describing the current period as a technological “Golden Age of Korea.” That kind of language from a CEO of Huang’s standing tends to move markets, and the deals announced alongside it are major enough to justify the attention.

The K-AI initiative is part of a broader global trend in which governments seek domestic control over strategic AI infrastructure, data, and foundation models — driven by a mix of security, economic and regulatory concerns. South Korea’s approach is notable for how thoroughly it integrates both public institutions and private conglomerates.

The Corporate Commitments

Samsung Electronics, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group have each announced plans for AI factories equipped with over 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs, targeting workloads across AI, semiconductor manufacturing, logistics, robotics, mobility and autonomous driving. NAVER Cloud will likely operate at least 60,000 NVIDIA GPUs for hyperscale AI services and physical AI platforms, including sovereign Korean-language foundation models developed with partners such as LG AI Research, SK Telecom, NC AI and Upstage.

The money involved is considerable. NVIDIA intends to invest around £780 million (close to $1 billion) into NAVER Corp., while Brookfield Asset Management is considering funding of up to around £7 billion (close to $9 billion) — though that figure is based on a non-binding term sheet and remains subject to final agreements. Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA have separately announced a planned joint investment of about £2.3 billion (about $3 billion) in physical AI infrastructure, research centres, and engineer training facilities in Korea.

SK hynix has also signed a multi-year technology partnership with NVIDIA to co-develop advanced memory components optimised for AI data centres — a deal that reflects the depth of the semiconductor supply chain being mobilised here.

Gigawatt-Scale Ambitions

The energy numbers are as eye-catching as the GPU counts. SK Telecom and NVIDIA plan a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea, with the first AI factory and data centre projected to start operating in 2027. NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield have announced plans to expand NAVER’s GAK Sejong data centre from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts by 2028, with NAVER targeting 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA AI infrastructure over the longer term.

Those power demands are not trivial. A gigawatt is roughly the output of a large nuclear power station, and critics have pointed to the environmental and grid-capacity implications of building AI infrastructure at this scale. Questions about energy use, regulatory oversight and the concentration of so much AI capacity in the hands of a small number of large firms and a single US chip supplier are beginning to emerge, though detailed independent analysis of the K-AI projects specifically remains limited at this stage.

Geopolitically, some analysts read the South Korea–NVIDIA deals as part of a wider competition in semiconductors and AI between the United States, China and regional powers — with sovereign AI infrastructure serving as a hedge against trade restrictions and supply-chain disruptions. South Korea’s semiconductor industry, anchored by Samsung and SK hynix, gives it a distinctive position in that contest.

Physical AI and Robotics

Beyond cloud computing, the partnerships extend into what NVIDIA calls “physical AI” — AI-powered robotics, autonomous vehicles and smart manufacturing. Hyundai Motor Group’s involvement is above all significant here. The joint investment covers a new NVIDIA AI Technology Centre and a Hyundai Physical AI Application Centre, both planned for Korea, using NVIDIA platforms including Cosmos (a physical AI platform) and Nemotron (sovereign AI models). These are not vague future promises; they are named programmes with named hardware and named institutional homes.

NAVER’s platform work also includes physical AI alongside its hyperscale cloud services, suggesting the country’s ambitions extend well beyond running large language models in data centres.

What This Means for Kent Residents

The infrastructure being built here is in South Korea, so any impact on Kent residents is indirect — but it’s real enough to be worth noting. Hyundai vehicles sold in the UK, Samsung appliances in Kent homes, and the AI-assisted features increasingly built into consumer electronics may all draw on capabilities developed in these Korean AI factories. Over time, UK developers and businesses using global cloud platforms may also find themselves accessing Korean-hosted AI services or foundation models as part of standard cloud offerings. The broader lesson from South Korea’s K-AI push — that national governments can move fast and at scale when they treat AI infrastructure as a strategic priority — is one that UK policymakers are watching closely, even if no equivalent programme for the South East of England has yet been announced.