NVIDIA, a leading company in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, announced it will set up a research and development (R&D) center in Korea. This follows a promise made by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang during his visit to Korea last October, where he revealed plans to supply over 260,000 high-performance AI semiconductors.
On January 10, Ryu Je-myung, South Korea's second vice minister of science and ICT, visited NVIDIA’s headquarters in Silicon Valley and met with Jay Puri, NVIDIA's executive vice president, to discuss the R&D hub. They agreed that establishing the R&D center in Korea is important.
NVIDIA is known for its graphics processing units (GPUs), which dominate the global AI semiconductor market. This will be the first time NVIDIA has announced plans to open an R&D center in Korea. The company sees Korea's growing AI industry and its potential for rapid development as key factors in this decision.
In October 2025, NVIDIA committed to supplying 260,000 GPUs, valued at about 14 trillion won, to major Korean companies like Naver, Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor Group, and the government. The R&D center will aid support these companies as they build AI infrastructure.
The move is also seen as a step towards strengthening NVIDIA’s ties with Korean companies like Hyundai and semiconductor giants Samsung and SK Hynix, who are major players in the AI work space.
The new R&D hub is expected to boost Korea’s AI as well as semiconductor ecosystem, further expanding its role in the global AI market.