South Korea announced $950 billion in funding for new artificial intelligence projects with Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and US technology companies as the global race for faster AI chips continues. The plan is one of the largest technology investments ever announced.
The announcement came after an AI summit hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in San Francisco. The summit brought together top executives from leading US AI companies and South Korea’s biggest business groups.
SK Group signed deals worth $750 billion, including SK Hynix’s partnership with Nvidia valued at more than $500 billion. This single partnership alone is one of the largest technology agreements ever made.
Samsung Electronics signed an agreement with Broadcom covering up to $200 billion across memory chips, chip factories, and advanced packaging.
Several other major companies also announced new partnerships. Hyundai unveiled a self-driving vehicle project with Waymo. Samsung SDS joined Anthropic to train more AI engineers. Naver, one of South Korea’s biggest internet companies, also announced plans to build $10 billion worth of AI factories with support from Nvidia and Brookfield.
These chips are important because AI systems need a lot of computing power to work. Companies like OpenAI(the maker of ChatGPT) and Anthropic need more advanced chips than ever before. But the global supply is still limited. As demand keeps rising, Many technology companies are racing to get enough chips before supplies run low.
Before the summit, President Lee held separate meetings with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. The summit also included Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin.
During his speech, President Lee introduced what his office called the “San Francisco AI Declaration.” He said South Korea wants to become a trusted global hub for AI chip production and a reliable partner in the global chip supply chain. He explained that South Korea already leads in memory chip production and aims to provide the advanced chips that AI companies need.
As part of the SK Group deal, SK Telecom plans to build a two-gigawatt data center powered by Vera Rubin chips and SK Hynix’s newest HBM4 memory chips. The center is planned to begin operations in 2027.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said demand for AI memory chips is much higher than expected. He said recent talks with Nvidia, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Broadcom showed that these companies will need more chips in the future. Chey added that Nvidia may soon ask for more chips than it first planned. He also said Anthropic is closely checking future chip supplies as it grows from developing AI models to building its own AI computing systems.
An Anthropic spokesperson said the company is always looking at different chip options as part of its long-term computing plans. In May, Anthropic raised new funding at a valuation of $965 billion and named Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron as its key technology partners.
Last month, President Lee announced three major government-backed projects with Samsung and SK Hynix worth more than $576 billion. The projects include chip factories, AI systems for real-world use, and AI data centers.
President Lee is also pl to meet US investment firms this weekend to bring more money into Korean startups. He aims to make South Korea one of the world’s top AI chip producers.
