Gyeongju: South Korea can advance as a global leader in physical artificial intelligence (AI), expected to be the next wave of the fast-evolving technology, AI chip giant Nvidia Corp.'s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang said Friday, highlighting the country's competitiveness in the industry.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Huang, visiting Korea for the first time in 15 years, spoke at a special session for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit. He noted that AI has penetrated into people's lives, inducing more usage, which leads to more profit for companies, ultimately resulting in better AI. Huang emphasized that Korea possesses the three "fundamental, essential and necessary" qualities to succeed in the AI industry: software expertise, deep technical and science capabilities, and advanced manufacturing.
Huang underscored that combining software, AI technology, and manufacturing provides an opportunity to take advantage of robotics, marking the next generation of physical AI. Physical AI involves the inclusion of AI in physical devices like robotics, machines, and autonomous vehicles, potentially bringing massive changes to people's lives by enabling humans and robots to work alongside each other.
Huang also highlighted Korea as a significant partner in Nvidia's vision for the industry, mentioning plans to extend partnerships with Korean companies. Earlier, Nvidia announced a deployment of up to 260,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) in South Korea in collaboration with the government and major companies, including Samsung Electronics Co., SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Naver Cloud Corp., to build large-scale AI factories.
The deployment plan includes Samsung, SK, and Hyundai Motor each using up to 50,000 GPUs, while Naver Cloud will install around 60,000 units, totaling 260,000. This Blackwell-based infrastructure will potentially boost South Korea's total installed AI GPU capacity from about 65,000 to over 300,000 units, making it one of the world's largest hubs for AI computing outside the United States.
In a separate press conference, Huang expressed confidence in South Korea becoming an AI hub for the region, attracting startups and companies from other countries to invest and operate in the country. He praised Samsung Electronics and SK hynix for their memory technology capabilities involving high bandwidth memory (HBM) products, affirming long-term partnerships.
The APEC CEO Summit, concluding its three-day run following Huang's session, serves as the official business gathering of the annual APEC leaders' summit that began earlier in Gyeongju.