South Korea's AI Summit — $500 Billion Partnership With NVIDIA and the Nation's AI Vision
South Korean President Jae Myung Lee unveiled the nation's ambitious AI strategy at the AI Summit in San Francisco. A $500 billion partnership with NVIDIA, a joint KAIST AI lab, and Hyundai's physical AI push.
South Korea's AI Ambition
South Korean President Jae Myung Lee presented the nation's ambitious AI vision at the AI Summit in San Francisco. The summit, organized by NVIDIA, became a platform for historic announcements: over $500 billion in AI infrastructure investment, joint research labs, and a physical AI revolution.
Key Partnerships Announced
NVIDIA and KAIST announced a joint AI research lab — the first of its kind between a Korean university and any global technology company. NAVER, Brookfield, and NVIDIA will expand NAVER's NVIDIA DSX AI factory to 200 megawatts. SK Group and NVIDIA announced plans for a $500-billion-plus comprehensive partnership. Hyundai Motor Group outlined a physical AI strategy anchored by a robot reference platform with 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs.
President Lee's San Francisco AI Declaration
President Lee opened with his "San Francisco AI Declaration," pitching a multitrillion-dollar push into AI semiconductors, hyperscale data centers, and physical AI. He described artificial intelligence as "humanity discovering fire anew." Jensen Huang responded: "This really is the golden age for Korea." Sam Altman of OpenAI stated: "There really would not have been this incredible AI revolution without Korea." Dario Amodei of Anthropic noted Korea's role "throughout the stack, from semiconductors to infrastructure to talent."
Joint Research Lab with KAIST
The NVIDIA-KAIST joint lab is dedicated to advancing agentic AI for South Korea. It's backed by a multiyear commitment to fund and train Korean researchers. Additional NVIDIA AI Technology Centers are being planned with KAIST's Mechanical Engineering department and Seoul National University, covering physical AI, foundation models, and accelerated computing.
Hyundai's Physical AI Strategy
Hyundai Motor Group outlined an ambitious physical AI strategy featuring a robot reference platform developed with NVIDIA, extending a buildout with 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. The collaboration also includes NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion for autonomous vehicle development.
A 25-Year Partnership
NVIDIA and Korea have been partners for over 25 years, from PC gaming to the AI revolution. As Huang noted: "If not for the invention of HBM memory in Korea, NVIDIA wouldn't have been able to invent the supercomputers that power AI today."
Conclusion
The message from the AI Summit was clear: the AI era isn't just being built in Silicon Valley. Korea is helping build it. For Georgian tech professionals, this signals a decentralized future where global partnerships drive AI innovation.