Nvidia chief says will announce US$500 bln partnership with SK Group in meeting with Lee

Lead

SAN FRANCISCO — President Lee Jae Myung met with Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Friday, the first day of a two-day trip to San Francisco aimed at promoting AI investment and cooperation between global tech giants and South Korea. During the meeting, Huang said Nvidia will announce a US$500 billion business partnership with South Korea's SK Group, according to Yonhap News.

Huang also announced plans to jointly develop a self-driving Genesis sedan with South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group and to make a large-scale investment in internet portal Naver to help the company further expand its presence at home and abroad, as reported by Yonhap.

Coverage Comparison

Yonhap News reported extensively on the meetings, with multiple articles covering both the presidential meeting and separate gatherings between Huang and South Korean business leaders. One report noted that Huang's remarks referred to investment plans Nvidia is expected to commit to during an AI meeting in San Francisco, which brought together the chiefs of global tech firms and the heads of South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

Another Yonhap article detailed that Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, and Lee Hae-jin, founder of Naver, visited Nvidia's headquarters to meet Huang on Friday. The same report said details of each meeting were not immediately unveiled but that they were presumed to have discussed cooperation and investment plans between Nvidia and South Korean companies.

A separate Yonhap report, published ahead of the meetings, said South Korea's top business leaders were set to meet with Huang and other global tech executives in the United States later that week to discuss AI cooperation. That article identified the meeting as organized by the South Korean government and said it would bring together Lee, Chey, Chung, Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Key Claims

• Huang said Nvidia will announce a US$500 billion business partnership with SK Group, as reported by Yonhap.
• Nvidia plans to jointly develop a self-driving Genesis sedan with Hyundai Motor Group, according to Yonhap.
• Nvidia will make a large-scale investment in Naver to help the portal operator expand its presence at home and abroad, as reported by Yonhap.
• Nvidia plans to sign partnerships with SK hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics on chip design and memory design, Huang noted, according to Yonhap.
• Huang said Nvidia will work with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to build a 'Korea AI,' adding that the company will seek to develop a large language model for South Korea in the country, as reported by Yonhap.
• Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are the world's two largest memory chipmakers and key suppliers to Nvidia and other AI companies, according to Yonhap.
• Hyundai Motor Group has expanded its presence in physical AI through its robotics subsidiary, Boston Dynamics, as reported by Yonhap.
• On Thursday, Huang met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to expand business cooperation, according to Yonhap.
• The South Korean business leaders are accompanying President Lee, who was visiting to promote the country's AI vision and business cooperation with global big tech firms, on his way to South America, as reported by Yonhap.
• The meetings came after Huang visited South Korea in June and met with top executives from Korean companies in the AI-related industry, such as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix Inc., Hyundai Motor Group, LG Group, and Naver Corp., according to Yonhap.