On the sidelines of the “San Francisco AI Summit” attended by President Lee Jae-myung, Korean companies and global Big Tech agreed to pursue a combined $950 billion (about 1,375 trillion won) in new semiconductor supply cooperation. At its core: Samsung Electronics and Broadcom over five years worth $200 billion, and SK with Nvidia and others over five years worth $750 billion in advanced memory cooperation. Kim Yong-beom, head of the presidential policy office, announced the outcome in a local briefing on July 25. Here is why this announcement matters for Korea’s chip industry. 🔍

TL;DR: $950 billion in chip supply ($200B Samsung-Broadcom + $750B SK-Big Tech), roughly 5GW of AI data centers and about 2 million GPUs, and Naver’s $10 billion AI factory — a sweeping set of deals across three pillars of “semiconductors, data centers, and physical AI” all announced at once. Note that most are memoranda of understanding (MOUs) or “plans to pursue,” so actual execution and final scale remain to be seen.

💡 What Happened — Unpacking the $950 Billion

To put it plainly, the $950 billion figure is the sum of two chip “supply cooperation” deals. On July 24 (local time), President Lee visited San Francisco, met with global Big Tech CEOs, and attended the “San Francisco AI Summit” and dinner. At a local press-center briefing on July 25, policy chief Kim Yong-beom said, “Korean companies and global Big Tech firms have agreed to pursue a combined $950 billion (about 1,375 trillion won) in semiconductor cooperation.”

The summit drew Big Tech leaders from Nvidia, Broadcom, OpenAI, and Anthropic, alongside Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung, and Naver board chair Lee Hae-jin — some 230 executives, researchers, startups, investors, and students from home and abroad. The combined market capitalization of the participating companies reaches about 17,000 trillion won based on recent closing prices, Financial News reported.

🧩 Samsung $200B · SK $750B — Chip Supply Cooperation

The centerpiece is two large memory supply deals. Samsung Electronics and Broadcom signed an MOU worth $200 billion (about 290 trillion won) over five years, covering advanced memory supply and foundry cooperation to produce AI chips. Notably, the plan reaches beyond memory supply to fabricating AI chips at Samsung’s foundry.

SK agreed to pursue $750 billion (about 1,085 trillion won) in long-term advanced memory supply cooperation with Nvidia and other Big Tech firms over five years. Together, these two deals make up the $950 billion “chip jackpot.” Separately, on July 23, the Ministry of Science and ICT and AMD signed an MOU to jointly build and validate AI computing infrastructure that links Korea’s homegrown AI chip (an NPU) with AMD’s CPUs and GPUs — widening cooperation beyond supply and production into next-generation chip co-design and domestic AI-chip validation.

🏗️ AI Data Centers: ~5GW and 2 Million GPUs

The second pillar is large-scale AI data center investment. Korean firms and global Big Tech agreed to pursue AI data center investment cooperation of roughly 5GW and about 2 million GPUs (on an Nvidia B200 basis). SKT agreed with Nvidia on building and expanding up to 2GW of data centers, with Nvidia’s support and priority allocation of the latest “Vera Rubin” GPU systems, and is also pursuing a gigawatt-class domestic data center project with Anthropic.

Naver signed a strategic investment agreement with Nvidia and, through an infrastructure supply contract with global investment firm Brookfield, will build a $10 billion global AI factory. The funding breaks down into $1 billion from Nvidia and up to $9 billion from Brookfield.

🤖 Physical AI and Talent — The Third Pillar

The third pillar covers “physical AI” such as robotics and autonomous driving, plus talent development. The government’s “three mega projects” are summarized as semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI. Hyundai Motor Group and Nvidia will jointly build a “robot reference platform” — a standardized foundation for developing and validating AI robots — to support robot development at universities and startups, and announced an autonomous-vehicle foundry plan with Waymo. Samsung SDS and Anthropic signed a strategic partnership to jointly find new AI markets and train AI engineers.

At the summit, President Lee laid out a “San Francisco AI Declaration,” presenting a vision to make Korea a global AI production base and a foundation for AI innovation — a “core, irreplaceable node in the global AI supply chain.”

📌 The Takeaway — Clear Direction, Execution Is the Question

The announcement clearly signals Korea’s intent to absorb the AI era’s chip and infrastructure demand at scale. Breaking it down pillar by pillar: the $950 billion chip cooperation rests on five-year, long-term supply from Samsung ($200B) and SK ($750B), a sign that demand for advanced memory including HBM is that robust. Adding 5GW of data centers, 2 million GPUs, and Naver’s $10 billion AI factory widens the scope from “chips” to “infrastructure,” while robotics, autonomous driving, and talent development extend it across the entire AI value chain.

One caveat, though: much of what was announced is at the MOU or “plan to pursue” stage. Contract size, timing, and actual execution still need to be confirmed. Large five-year supply deals in particular can shift in scale depending on market conditions and investment plans, so it is reasonable to watch the direction and pace of execution rather than treat the headline figures as booked results.

※ This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.

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