NVIDIA and SK Group Sign $500 Billion-Plus AI Infrastructure Letters of Intent
SK Group and NVIDIA signed letters of intent on July 24 for a $500-billion-plus initiative covering AI factories and next-generation memory. SK Telecom plans a 2-gigawatt Vera Rubin DSX facility, with the first phase due in 2027, while SK hynix will pursue long-term HBM supply and co-development with NVIDIA. The figure describes a planned multi-year commercial relationship, not an upfront investment or completed build.
SK Group and NVIDIA signed letters of intent on July 24 for a planned $500-billion-plus relationship spanning AI infrastructure and next-generation memory. The announcement replaces earlier forward-looking reports that NVIDIA chief Jensen Huang would reveal a partnership; the companies have now published the main terms, although the projects remain plans rather than completed deployments.
What the agreement covers
SK Telecom plans to build an NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI factory with capacity of up to 2 gigawatts. NVIDIA said the systems will use SK hynix HBM4 memory, with the first AI factory planned to come online in 2027. The infrastructure is intended to support sovereign, enterprise, physical and agentic AI workloads in South Korea and across the Asia-Pacific region.
A second track covers memory. NVIDIA and SK hynix plan a long-term relationship to secure and jointly develop next-generation AI memory, including high-bandwidth memory. That pairing matters because accelerator performance depends on both compute and memory bandwidth; the announcement links a future data-center buildout to the memory technology meant to feed it.
Reading the $500 billion figure carefully
The official announcement describes a $500-billion-plus comprehensive partnership, but it does not provide a project-by-project capital schedule or say that the full amount has already been funded. Independent coverage likewise treats the number as an umbrella value for expected commercial activity across infrastructure construction, hardware purchases and memory supply over multiple years.
The signed letters of intent establish direction and scope. They are not evidence that a 2-gigawatt facility is operating, that all financing is closed, or that the stated commercial value is guaranteed. Those distinctions are important when comparing the initiative with projects that have disclosed permits, power contracts, financing and delivery schedules.
Why data and AI teams should care
If executed, the project would add substantial regional capacity built around a tightly coupled NVIDIA and SK hynix stack. For teams planning future training or inference workloads, the meaningful signals will be phased capacity, customer-access terms, power and cooling milestones, and the availability of Vera Rubin systems and HBM4. Until those details arrive, the announcement is best treated as a large strategic roadmap with a 2027 first-phase target, not usable capacity today.
Key Points
- 1SK Group and NVIDIA signed letters of intent for a $500-billion-plus initiative spanning AI factories and next-generation memory.
- 2SK Telecom plans an AI factory of up to 2 gigawatts using NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX systems and SK hynix HBM4, with the first phase targeted for 2027.
- 3The headline figure represents a planned multi-year commercial relationship; the announcement does not show that the full amount is funded or that capacity is already available.
Scoring Rationale
High-impact planned infrastructure and memory partnership spanning a 2-gigawatt AI factory and HBM co-development. The score remains below the highest tier because the parties announced letters of intent and a 2027 target rather than a completed build or fully disclosed financing.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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