NVIDIA to Launch GPU R&D Hub in Korea

NVIDIA will establish a research and development (R&D) hub in Korea. This follows up on the commitment made by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who visited Korea in October last year and announced plans to supply over 260,000 high-performance AI semiconductors.

On Jan. 10 (local time), Ryu Je-myung, second vice minister of science and ICT, visited NVIDIA headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, and met with Jay Puri, executive vice president of NVIDIA, to discuss these matters. A ministry official stated, “NVIDIA formed a consensus that there is a need to promptly establish an R&D center in Korea.”

NVIDIA has secured an overwhelming market share in the global AI semiconductor market through chips called graphics processing units (GPUs). This marks the first time the company has indicated its intention to establish an R&D center in Korea. This plan is analyzed to have been announced as NVIDIA determined that Korea’s AI industry is developing quite rapidly and has significant growth potential.

The decision to establish the R&D center is interpreted as being driven by the need for customization following the large-scale GPU supply. The R&D center is expected to play a supporting role in building AI infrastructure for NVIDIA GPU client companies such as Hyundai Motor Co.

NVIDIA’s R&D center is highly likely to become a collaboration hub for high bandwidth memory (HBM) with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. An AI industry official said, “If NVIDIA’s R&D center is established, the domestic semiconductor and AI engineer ecosystem will grow even larger.”