By Max A. Cherney and Heekyong Yang
SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL, July 24 (Reuters) - South Korea announced $950 billion in new AI initiatives involving Samsung Electronics, SK Group and U.S. tech firms as global AI leaders rush to fill a shortage of faster chips to power and develop more advanced systems.
SK Group has signed deals worth $750 billion, including SK Hynix's partnership with Nvidia valued at more than $500 billion, South Korea's presidential Blue House said after an AI summit hosted by President Lee Jae Myung in San Francisco.
Samsung Electronics said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Broadcom covering up to $200 billion across memory chips, foundry services and advanced packaging.
The deals are the latest moves by U.S. AI firms hoping to lock in supply as demand for chips and computing infrastructure outpaces supply, driving tech companies into closer partnerships with South Korea's semiconductor and memory leaders.
Speaking at the summit, Lee said South Korea would lead the way to a new era of AI in partnership with global technology companies, making available its "dynamic AI ecosystem" to expand the global market for industrial and personal AI use.
He unveiled a "San Francisco AI Declaration" that outlined South Korea's AI ambitions for technological cooperation with the United States.
"I'd like to present a vision for the future of AI and propose global cooperation to make it happen," Lee said.
Lee separately met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, before joining the summit.
Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin also attended.
Nvidia and South Korea's SK Group unveiled a new AI initiative valued at $500 billion spanning large-scale AI data centers and next-generation memory.
The initiative includes a long-term partnership with SK Hynix to secure next-generation memory supply for Nvidia and jointly develop high-bandwidth memory for AI training, AI agents and physical AI applications.
As part of the agreement, SK Telecom plans to build a 2-gigawatt data center powered by Vera Rubin chips and SK Hynix's HBM4 high-bandwidth (HBM) memory chips. The data center is due online in 2027.
Samsung Electronics said it will work with Broadcom on the development of its next-generation AI accelerator based on Samsung's HBM technology and provide it with sub-2-nanometer foundry process and advanced packaging solutions.