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South Korea Ramps Up AI Ambitions With $950 Billion US Tech Deals
South Korean technology companies led by Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) and SK Group unveiled artificial intelligence partnerships worth a combined $950 billion with Nvidia, Broadcom and other U.S. companies on Friday.The announcements came at an AI investment summit in San Francisco hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.About 230 business leaders attended the event, including Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman and Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei.The $950 billion total stems from two massive semiconductor supply and manufacturing agreements. Samsung signed a five-year, $200 billion memorandum of understanding with Broadcom to provide high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for AI data centers alongside advanced foundry services.SK Group committed to $750 billion in long-term advanced memory supply cooperation with global tech companies. This includes a $500 billion-plus letter of intent with Nvidia spanning AI infrastructure and next-generation memory development. Additionally, SK Telecom (KRX:017670) will procure Nvidia's latest computing platforms to develop AI data centers with up to 2 gigawatts of power capacity.Separately from the semiconductor deals, Naver (KRX:035420) expanded its partnership with Nvidia, securing a $1 billion investment from the U.S. chipmaker and up to $9 billion from Canadian investment firm Brookfield to support AI data centre projects in South Korea.The South Korean government said the agreements support its strategy to position the country as a global AI production base by combining its semiconductor expertise with the technology and capital of leading U.S. companies.South Korea will "become a global hub by going beyond supply to create dynamic new markets where the world can grow together through the fastest and best utilization of AI," Lee said in the San Francisco AI Declaration.He added that the country aims to "leap forward as a key nation in the irreplaceable global AI supply chain."The announcements come as South Korea accelerates investment in AI infrastructure. In June, Samsung and SK Hynix announced plans to invest a combined 800 trillion won in four semiconductor plants.
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