By Hyunjoo Jin and Eduardo Baptista
SEOUL/GYEONGJU (Reuters) -U.S. semiconductor leader Nvidia on Friday said it will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced AI chips to South Korea's government and some of the country's biggest businesses, including Samsung Electronics.
The deal is the latest for a company at the core of a global race to integrate artificial intelligence into products and services, adding to a flurry of deals it is striking worldwide that helped it on Wednesday become the first
$5 trillion firm.
For Korea, the deal will put the country on track to become a regional AI hub after President Lee Jae Myung, who took office on June 4, prioritised AI investment to spur growth at a time when U.S. tariffs have clouded the broader economic outlook.
"Just as Korea's physical factories have inspired the world with sophisticated ships, cars, chips and electronics, the nation can now produce intelligence as a new export that will drive global transformation," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement, disclosing neither deal value nor supply schedule.
The announcement followed a meeting between Huang, Lee and the leaders of Samsung, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southeastern Korean city of Gyeongju.
Nvidia's deepening ties with Korea, home to semiconductor and automotive majors, come as the chip firm grapples with the fallout of a Sino-U.S. trade war that Huang said this month has slashed its share of China's advanced AI chip market.
The U.S. has repeatedly imposed restrictions on the export of Nvidia chips to China citing national security. U.S. President Donald Trump met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Korea on Thursday but did not raise the issue.
Nvidia has since tried to press its advantage in markets less affected by geopolitics, identifying uses beyond chatbots and image generators and targeting customers in sectors such as manufacturing and retail.
Korea's government plans to invest in AI infrastructure using more than 50,000 of Nvidia's latest chips, while Samsung Electronics, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group will each deploy up to 50,000 AI chips in smart factories involved, for instance, in semiconductor and vehicle manufacturing.
The country's largest internet portal and search engine provider, Naver, will also buy 60,000 Nvidia chips.
Using its new trove of Nvidia chips, the government said it will work with internet companies such as Naver and Kakao to expand computing infrastructure through initiatives such as the National AI Computing Center.
Hyundai Motor Group said it is deepening collaboration with Nvidia by building a "supercomputer" to develop in-vehicle AI, autonomous driving, smart factories and robotics.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Eduardo Baptista in Gyeongju; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Christopher Cushing)
