- In recent months, South Korea has become a focal point attracting US tech conglomerates like Nvidia, OpenAI, and AWS, with a total investment exceeding $20 billion to build AI infrastructure.
- AWS announced plans to inject an additional $5 billion over the next 6 years to build AI data centers in Incheon and Gyeonggi, complementing a previous $4 billion investment in Ulsan with SK Group, raising the total commitment to $9 billion by 2031.
- Nvidia is supplying approximately 260,000 Blackwell GPUs to South Korea under a $10 billion contract, allocating 50,000 GPUs each to the government, Samsung, SK, and Hyundai corporations, and 60,000 to Naver.
- Samsung and SK Group signed an agreement to supply chips for OpenAI’s Stargate project, with a demand of up to 900,000 DRAM wafers per month – double the current global HBM production.
- OpenAI is also collaborating to build 2 data centers in Pohang and Jeolla, strengthening the strategic link for AI infrastructure.
- According to CEO Sam Altman, South Korea possesses the “four golden factors” for AI: human resources, infrastructure, government support, and a dynamic ecosystem.
- The South Korean government aims to enter the top 3 global AI powers, launching the “AI highway” project to connect national data centers with a super-speed network by 2030, alongside a 100 trillion won ($69 billion USD) national growth fund.
- With its strength in semiconductors, South Korea holds 70% of the global DRAM market and 80% of the global HBM market, making it a critical foundation for generative and physical AI infrastructure.
- Nvidia, together with Hyundai, Samsung, SK, and Naver, is building “AI megafactories” and “AI clusters” worth over $3 billion, focusing on autonomous vehicles, robotics, and smart factories.
- South Korea is considered an ideal “testbed” for physical AI due to its high urban density, leading telecommunications network, and strong manufacturing capabilities – something that the US or Europe struggle to match.
📌 South Korea is becoming a strategic hub in the global AI race, with US corporations investing over $20 billion in infrastructure, chips, and data centers. South Korea possesses the “four golden factors” for AI: human resources, infrastructure, government support, and a dynamic ecosystem. The government aims to enter the top 3 global AI powers, launching the “AI highway” project to connect national data centers with a super-speed network by 2030. South Korea is considered an ideal “testbed” for physical AI due to its high urban density, leading telecommunications network, and strong manufacturing capabilities – something that the US or Europe struggle to match.
