South Korea Minister Discusses AI Partnerships With Nvidia

Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Seoul on June 8, 2026 to discuss expanded cooperation across South Korea's AI ecosystem, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and Yonhap. The meeting came during Huang's four-day visit, in which he met executives from major conglomerates, researchers, and startups and addressed a Korea AI Ecosystem Reception attended by 18 companies including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Electronics, Naver, and Krafton (Korea Herald). Bae asked Huang to ensure smooth delivery of about 260,000 advanced chips discussed at last year's APEC meeting. Naver and SK Telecom separately disclosed plans to build large, gigawatt-scale AI factories with Nvidia during the visit (Seoul Economic Daily).

Korea Herald reports talks centered on the planned delivery of 260,000 Nvidia GPUs, the introduction of Vera Rubin-based AI factories, and closer collaboration with Korean universities, research institutes, and companies, with Korea reportedly prioritized for Vera Rubin supply. Coverage names the Vera Rubin NVL72 platform as the basis for the proposed AI factories - specialized facilities for training and running large-scale AI workloads. Yonhap adds that Bae hoped Nvidia's planned Seoul R&D center could become a partnership base.

Governments and hyperscalers increasingly pair hardware-supply commitments with local R&D and deployment partnerships to accelerate adoption. For practitioners, such arrangements lower procurement friction while raising demand for local systems integration, GPU cluster management, and accelerated software stacks. Early local deployment of Vera Rubin-class systems would shift some training and inference workloads toward South Korean campuses and enterprise sites, affecting procurement, operations, and talent demand.

• •Whether Nvidia confirms a binding timeline and SKUs for the 260,000 GPUs (Yonhap; Korea Herald).
• •Concrete details on an Nvidia R&D center in Seoul, including staffing, focus, and university partnerships.
• •Early 'AI factory' proofs of concept with named conglomerates, especially in manufacturing and robotics.
• •Ministry steps on power and data-center capacity needed to host high-density GPU clusters.

This is a tangible, well-sourced step in South Korea's AI-infrastructure buildout: a large reported GPU-supply figure, priority access to Vera Rubin, and plans for local AI factories and an R&D center, set against Huang's emphasis on robotics and physical AI as the next growth frontier. The account restricts itself to reported events and public remarks.