Samsung, SK Group Announce US$950 Billion AI Deals at South Korea Summit
Synopsis
South Korea announced US$950 billion in AI initiatives involving Samsung, SK Group, Nvidia and Broadcom as the country strengthens partnerships to meet growing AI chip dema
Key Highlights
- South Korea unveils US$950bn of new AI projects led by Samsung Electronics, SK Group and US Tech Companies.
- Concluded US$750 billion worth of partnerships incl. 500 billion investment between SK Hynix and Nvidia.
- Samsung Electronics signed a US$200 billion deal with Broadcom
South Korea set forth US$950 billion in new AI projects partnering with Samsung Electronics, SK Group and a few American tech firms as the demand for AI chips and computing infrastructure continues to outstrip supply.
The South Korean announcement comes on the heels of an AI summit in San Francisco this week, hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
Major AI Partnerships Announced
SK Group agreed to contracts whose total amount surpassed US$750 billion which includes a partnership worth more than US$500 billion in value between SK Hynix and Nvidia.
Under the agreement, a long-term partnership will be established to supply next-generation memory and co-develop high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI training with Nvidia as well as jointly develop HBM for AI agents and physical AI.
SK Hynix also plans to build a 2-gigawatt AI data centre using Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips and SK Hynix’s HBM4 memory to apply for a catalyst technology project operation from 2027.
At the same time, Samsung Electronics announced a memorandum of understanding with Broadcom valued at up to US$200 billion for memory chips, foundry services and advanced packaging. Samsung to develop Broadcom’s next-generation AI accelerator with HBM technology and offer sub-2-nanometre foundry and advanced package services.
South Korea Pushes AI Leadership
President Lee Jae Myung announced the San Francisco AI Declaration, detailing South Korea’s intent to grow its human-AI cooperation with America. Before the summit, Lee also met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
Attendees included Samsung Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Taewon, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin.
Continued Growth in the Demand for AI Chips
SK Chairman Chey Tae-won said memory AI companies want more than significantly greater than previously expected. Nvidia, Broadcom, Anthropic and OpenAI have all said demand for AI chips is growing, with the latter suggesting SK sell chips directly to OpenAI, he noted. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company has supply agreements with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, but he did not get into any additional secret particulars.
President Lee will also attend a Silicon Valley meeting, to get South Korea’s National Pension Service and some US venture capital firms together to promote the investment of their profit into South Korean startups.
The announcements come after last month’s unveiling by Lee of an industrial strategy involving over US$576 billion in investment for semiconductor production clusters, physical AI ecosystems and AI data centres.
Source: Reuters
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