South Korea will deploy over 260,000 NVIDIA Blackwell-class GPUs through government programs and major firms, aiming to build national AI factories and sovereign cloud capacity.
📌 Key Takeaways
- Korea’s plan aggregates 260k+ NVIDIA GPUs across public and private builds.
- Government targets 50k+ latest GPUs for sovereign clouds and research.
- Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group plan ~50k GPUs each.
- NAVER Cloud expands to 60k+ GPUs for enterprise and physical AI.
- Program aligns industry, telcos, and labs for LLMs, robotics, and AI-RAN.
Why Korea Is Building AI Factories Now
Officials frame accelerated computing as infrastructure, on par with power and broadband. The push combines sovereign clouds, corporate AI factories, and university programs to seed models, agents, and physical AI.
The plan aggregates capacity across partners to reach quarter-million plus GPUs quickly, then scale. Early phases include government data centers and cloud providers, with shared access for startups and researchers.
“Accelerated computing infrastructure becomes as vital as power grids.” — Jensen Huang, CEO, NVIDIA
Where The Chips Are Going
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT will deploy 50k+ of the latest NVIDIA GPUs across a National AI Computing Center and partner clouds. That capacity underwrites sovereign LLMs and research.
Industry builds mirror the state effort. Samsung, SK Group, and Hyundai Motor Group each target about 50k GPUs for AI factories, while NAVER Cloud plans 60k+ GPUs for enterprise and physical AI tasks.
Deployment:
- Government & sovereign clouds: 50k+
- Samsung AI factory: 50k+
- SK Group AI factory: 50k+
- Hyundai Motor Group AI factory: 50k
- NAVER Cloud expansion: 60k+
A wider ecosystem sits around this buildout, including Kakao, NHN Cloud, and research bodies like KISTI, which will link quantum and GPU systems for science workloads.
What Will Run On This Capacity
Near-term targets include foundation LLMs tuned for Korean language and domains, plus AI-RAN for 6G, digital twins, and robotics. Tooling spans CUDA-X, Omniverse, and post-training datasets like Nemotron.
Automakers will split capacity across autonomy, smart factories, and on-device AI. Internet platforms will drive enterprise and physical AI services, with sovereign clouds lowering access barriers for startups and labs.
“Expanding national AI infrastructure with NVIDIA is an investment in future industries.” — Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT
The Numbers, Partners, And Timeline
Public statements detail 260k+ accelerators across government and anchor firms, with purchase volumes tied to Blackwell-generation parts. Financial terms and precise delivery schedules were not disclosed.
Coverage highlights coordination with Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and NAVER Cloud, plus engagements with Kakao and NHN Cloud on sovereign capacity. The program was announced alongside APEC events in Korea.
What to watch next
- Procurement cadence and site go-lives
- Interconnect and scheduling performance at scale
- Shared access for startups and universities
- Early wins in AI-RAN, digital twins, and robotics
Implications For The AI Supply Chain
This is a regional hub strategy, pairing local fabs, automakers, and platforms with high-end compute. It positions Korea for faster training cycles, broader inference capacity, and deeper integration of AI into manufacturing.
It also signals continued diversification of demand outside China, with large national programs absorbing next-gen accelerators. Expect follow-on buys, software investments, and fresh research alliances as clusters come online.
Conclusion
South Korea is turning AI factories into national infrastructure, spreading Blackwell-class GPUs across state clouds and industrial champions. The early footprint already tops a quarter-million chips.
If deployments hit schedule and teams share access broadly, the country can accelerate LLMs, networks, and robotics at home, then export intelligence as a capability across sectors.
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31st October 2025
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