The challenge left by a high-profile visit
Partnerships must translate into measurable economic impact
AI infrastructure investment projected at $3–4 trillion annually by 2030
Whether the show becomes substance hinges on follow-through
During his five-day visit to South Korea, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang held meetings with SK Corp, Hyundai Motor, LG Corp and Naver, announcing a flurry of cooperation agreements. He signed a long-term supply agreement with SK Hynix for memory chips and agreed to build AI factories jointly with Naver and SK Telecom. At Hyundai Motor Group and LG Group, discussions centered mainly on robotics collaboration.
From his first day in the country, Huang said he had arrived with work in hand, and he continued to deliver the message — right up until his departure — that South Korea is an ideal destination for future AI investment. He said that combining Korea's "ppalli-ppalli," or fast-paced, culture and its receptiveness to new technology with AI infrastructure investment would generate strong business opportunities.
Yet analysts caution that whether the visit produces tangible results remains to be seen. Huang said he had brought surprise gifts for Korea, but the trip also clearly aligned with Nvidia's own ambitions to reinvent itself as an AI infrastructure company. The AI factory concept — which Huang invoked repeatedly as he unveiled each partnership — symbolizes that drive.
▶ "A deal the world has never seen before" — After the Korea AI Ecosystem Reception held Sunday evening at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, Huang said, "We have attracted the largest business deal in Korean history. I cannot go into detail because contracts have been signed, but this is not an ordinary deal — it is a deal on a scale the world has never seen before."
He went on to say, "I expect hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue to flow into Korea over the next five years. That is our gift, and that is our partnership."
Before the Sunday reception, Huang kept up a relentless schedule of visits to major Korean conglomerates. At 9 a.m. he arrived at SK's Seorin Building in Jung-gu, Seoul, where he announced a technology partnership with SK Hynix for joint memory chip development and agreed with SK Telecom to build a gigawatt-scale AI factory.
He then visited LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul, where he unveiled a physical AI cooperation plan to jointly develop a reference robot based on Isaac GR00T.
At Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, Huang met with Group Chairman Euisun Chung to discuss AI investment in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province. He then traveled to Naver's 1784 office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, to reaffirm the AI factory investment that Nvidia had announced directly through a media briefing earlier that morning.
As he left Korea on Monday, Huang highlighted two key outcomes from the visit: the multi-year memory chip partnership with SK Hynix and the AI cloud partnership concluded with Naver and SK Telecom.
▶ AI infrastructure build-out expands from big tech to all industries — The long-term supply agreement of more than two years with SK Hynix matters for Nvidia's supply chain management, while the AI factory announcements by Naver and SK Telecom are significant for Nvidia's future growth engine.
Some observers view Huang's visit as a roadshow to promote Nvidia's new growth strategy. Just before coming to Korea, Huang delivered a keynote at GTC Taipei 2026 in Taiwan, laying out a blueprint for building an integrated ecosystem with partners in AI factories and open-source AI models. The Korea visit effectively secured key partners — Naver and SK Telecom — for that vision.
Nvidia's AI factory, its data center solution, is a new operating model designed to meet surging computing demand. Built on the Nvidia DSX platform, it provides a full-stack offering covering design, simulation, infrastructure software, chips and operations.
Nvidia is pushing beyond GPU supply to become an AI infrastructure company, and it sees significant growth potential in that market. Where only hyperscalers such as big tech firms once invested in AI infrastructure, the analysis now is that every company will need to build it.
On an earnings conference call last month for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress predicted that "as agentic AI spreads across all businesses, AI infrastructure investment will reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion annually by 2030."
The AI factory projects by Naver and SK Telecom fit squarely within that outlook. Both companies expect to commercialize their AI factories as early as next year. Naver plans to initially secure 200 megawatts of capacity in the Asia region through a lease arrangement and to build out 1 gigawatt of infrastructure by 2030.
Huang said building a 1-gigawatt data center would require $60 billion (about 90 trillion won), raising questions about future financing needs. Naver plans to contribute more than $1 billion upfront, with a strategic investor joining at the same amount.
SK Telecom is also targeting the launch of its first AI factory next year, with plans to build a 5-gigawatt AI factory together with Nvidia.
▶ Deputy Prime Minister Bae: 'Don't just put on a show — invest' — Software cooperation agreements also serve to further entrench Nvidia's platform competitiveness.
LG Group chose Isaac GR00T, the world's first open humanoid robot foundation model that Nvidia unveiled last year. LG Group plans to integrate the autonomous driving platform Drive Hyperion to advance its mobility AI system.
When Huang visited Hyundai Motor, he showed keen interest in autonomous driving and robotics collaboration, personally examining Boston Dynamics' robot dog Spot and the autonomous mobility platform MoBeD. Nvidia supports autonomous driving technology through its open model Alpha Mayo.
Beyond these projects, however, no more concrete investment plans have emerged. Huang responded warmly to Chairman Chung's proposal for Saemangeum investment, calling the site an "AI Valley," but nothing tangible has materialized yet.
The government also pressed Huang directly to ensure the visit's outcomes take concrete form. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said at the Korea AI Ecosystem Reception on Sunday that he had told Huang, "Don't just put on a show in Korea — invest here too."
Bae said, "We agreed to support AI ecosystem investment at the government level," adding, "Because Korea can become the largest buyer of GPUs, Nvidia has agreed to invest alongside the Korean government in our AI ecosystem."
jeongwan@heraldcorp.com
