SAN FRANCISCO: Nvidia Corp will invest US$1bil in Naver Corp to help finance an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre under construction in South Korea, adding to a frenzy of deals by the world’s most valuable company.
The funding will allow Naver, an Internet and cloud service provider, to more than triple the size of the facility, Nvidia said late last Friday.
The site – developed jointly with US private equity firm Brookfield Corp – will use Nvidia’s AI computing hardware.
Separately, Nvidia is teaming up with SK Group to build more than two gigawatts of AI data centres on the Korean Peninsula.
That’s roughly the amount of energy needed to power 1.5 million homes.
The first of these so-called AI factories, built by SK Telecom Co, will open next year, Nvidia said.
“This is the golden ages for South Korea,” Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“Their semiconductor business is booming.
“Their industrial business is booming.
“You know, this is a country that has the ability to help the world build out the AI infrastructure.”
Huang has funnelled billions of dollars of investments into companies in every part of the AI supply chain.
He’s aiming to accelerate the uptake of his products and eliminate roadblocks that threaten to slow the adoption of AI.
The latest announcements, which build on existing partnerships with the two South Korean companies, coincide with a visit by the nation’s leader to the United States.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is attending events in Silicon Valley, and additional tech deals are in the works.
For Nvidia, closer ties with SK Group will help improve its access to computer memory chips.
That company’s SK Hynix Inc business and South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co are the two biggest providers of the crucial components – chips that are in short supply because of the global build-out of AI data centres.
Nvidia will help Hynix design future high-bandwidth memory chips, an effort that will help guarantee access to supply, the US company said.
In total, the “AI initiative” with SK Group will be worth more than US$500bil, Nvidia said.
The figure includes money that Nvidia will spend buying memory chips, as well as purchases by SK Group of Nvidia’s supercomputers, Huang said in the interview.
“So, between us, we’re going to do half a trillion dollars’ worth of business,” he added.
For the Naver project, Brookfield has agreed to a nonbinding term sheet to fund up to US$9bil.
Huang has argued previously that investments in companies such as Anthropic PBC and OpenAI will help not only his business, but provide an investment return.
However, critics have expressed concern that such moves represent an artificial inflation of demand.
They went as far as describing them as circular deals.
Earlier last week, Nvidia signed a US$1.5bil agreement with Amkor Technology Inc.
This was to help bolster that company’s chip packaging facilities.
Furthermore, Nvidia is coming off a recent trip to Japan that included agreements with robotics providers and Toyota Motor Corp.
Huang is currently pushing for greater investment in AI hardware outside of his key group of large customers, the so-called hyperscalers.
Nvidia’s leader has said that countries should create their own “sovereign” capabilities preserving control over their own data.
He also wants to make sure AI capacity is available for smaller companies and organisations to use. — Bloomberg
