SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in San Francisco on the 24th that the investment plans recently announced in Korea are "not far-fetched." Backing this up, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared, "Now is Korea's golden age," signaling large-scale memory purchases and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure development through a major expansion of cooperation with SK. The newly added business partnership between the two companies amounts to $500 billion (about 730 trillion won).
Chey, who attended the AI Summit in San Francisco alongside President Lee Jae-myung that day, said, "Korea has announced three mega-projects: expanding semiconductor fabs, building AI data centers, and investing in physical AI." He added, "In dollar terms, this represents more than $3 trillion in investment." He continued, "Because the numbers are so large and unfamiliar, people may doubt them or think they are exaggerated," but said, "Here today, I can tell you that while they may be unfamiliar, they are not far-fetched." Chey said he had discussed the growth of the AI market and memory chip demand over dinner with Huang the previous day. "Jensen stays hungry," he said. "Every time we meet, he asks for more chips."
He continued, "Today you probably heard part of the scale of chips Nvidia wants over five years," adding, "The next time we meet, I think he will say, 'That's the wrong number, we need more.'" He stressed, "AI plans only grow bigger the more you touch them."
Chey also relayed that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is demanding far more memory chips than expected. "He is asking for a number of memory chips that would astonish you if you heard it," Chey said. "We are in a situation where we say we can absorb that volume, or that it might even fall short." He also cited the cases of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "What Anthropic needs right now is computing power rather than the chips themselves," Chey said. "They have decided to secure computing power directly to respond to growing AI demand, and they keep checking how many chips are available for supply."
On OpenAI, he said, "They told us not to give chips to others but to give them directly to OpenAI," adding, "The computing power they need this year and next year is also an enormous number." He continued, "We can't help but suspect that even the projects we announced might turn out to be a small number."
As if to prove this, Huang also conveyed his intention to jointly build Korea's overall industry and AI stack: expanding cooperation with SK Group to pursue large-scale memory purchases and AI infrastructure development, working on next-generation AI chips and semiconductors with Samsung and SK hynix, robotics and digital twins with Hyundai Motor, and energy infrastructure with LG.
Hock Tan also emphasized AI sovereignty and presented specific cooperation plans. "Korea should be nurtured as a global AI hub over the next 10 to 20 years," he said, pledging "joint development of customized AI computing accelerators for Korea's frontier AI model development, expansion of the memory and semiconductor ecosystem, and AI infrastructure development." In particular, he said, "We will sign an MOU with Samsung Electronics and jointly develop next-generation AI infrastructure and high-performance AI solutions."
Altman highly praised Korea's investment in AI infrastructure. "The AI revolution would have been impossible without Korea," he said, assessing that Korea's three mega-projects will enable the next leap in AI. Above all, citing "AI for All," he expressed agreement with the Korean government's "AI for Everyone" initiative.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei gave high marks to the completeness of Korea's AI ecosystem. He said the entire AI stack—from semiconductors and data centers to talent—is in place, and announced plans to open a Korean office, sign investment and supply contracts with domestic companies such as Samsung and SK, and expand cooperation with Naver, LG, and Nexon.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a video message that he would continue to invest in Korea's AI infrastructure over the coming years. "The vision to make Korea a global leader in AI shows new possibilities," he said, adding that Microsoft would strengthen cooperation with leading domestic companies, including its strategic partner SK Group. "Microsoft is co-designing memory chips with SK," Nadella said, expressing his intention to join Korea in its next stage of growth.
