South Korea Maps AI Future with NVIDIA

At the AI Summit in San Francisco, South Korea showcased its AI roadmap through a series of meetings and announcements with NVIDIA. Following NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's visit to Korea last month, President Jae Myung Lee and business leaders from Samsung, Hyundai, NAVER, and SK Group gathered to advance the country's ambition to become a global AI innovation hub. One key outcome was the establishment of the first AI research lab between a Korean university and a global tech company: a collaboration between NVIDIA and KAIST to develop agentic AI.

Joint NVIDIA-KAIST Research Lab: First in Korea, Focusing on Agentic AI

NVIDIA and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) officially established a joint AI research lab at the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI at KAIST in Seoul. This lab is the first between a South Korean university and any global technology company. "We will build a robust academic AI research program, combining NVIDIA's full-stack AI expertise, Nemotron open models, and partner AI cloud computing with KAIST's world-class scientific talent," NVIDIA stated in its official blog. The lab's primary focus is developing agentic AI, AI systems capable of acting autonomously to complete complex tasks. This move strengthens South Korea's position in global AI research while leveraging NVIDIA's open-source AI models that are accessible to the wider research community.

NVIDIA and SK Group Strengthen AI Memory Collaboration

Ahead of the AI Summit, Jensen Huang hosted a dinner with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, along with leaders from SK hynix, SK Telecom, and the NVIDIA team in Woodside, California. The two companies have a long-standing partnership and in June expanded their collaboration to develop memory for NVIDIA platforms, covering AI infrastructure, personal AI, and physical AI. SK Telecom also announced plans to build AI infrastructure to drive innovation in robotics and physical AI in South Korea. This extends the existing cooperation and includes memory solutions for the full AI spectrum, from data centers to edge devices.

Korean Tech Giants Visit NVIDIA Campus

Samsung Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung, and NAVER founder Lee Hae-jin visited NVIDIA's headquarters in Santa Clara, California. They posed for photos with Jensen Huang in the lobby of the Endeavor building, whose triangular design represents the fundamental element of modern computer graphics, with employees working in the background. The visit reflects the deep interest of South Korean companies in integrating AI into their products and services, from smartphones and electric vehicles to internet platforms. President Lee was also scheduled to meet directly with Huang during the summit, underscoring the South Korean government's full support for AI-driven digital transformation.

Potential Impact on Emerging AI Ecosystems

Although Indonesia was not directly mentioned, several aspects of these developments could open opportunities for AI developers and companies in emerging markets like Indonesia. First, open-source AI models such as Nemotron, used in the NVIDIA-KAIST joint research, can be adopted by researchers and startups to create local agentic AI applications, for example in customer service or industrial automation. Second, collaborations in the memory and AI infrastructure sector between SK Group and NVIDIA could accelerate the availability of more efficient AI hardware, enabling companies in emerging economies to run advanced AI models at lower cost. Third, the tripartite partnership model between government, university, and global tech companies could serve as an example for building sustainable AI research and innovation ecosystems in other countries.