Nvidia to supply 260,000 cutting-edge chips to South Korea

Nvidia to supply 260,000 cutting-edge chips to South Korea Estelle.Bronkhorst Fri, 10/31/2025 - 14:00 SEOUL - US tech giant Nvidia said it will supply 260,000 of its most cutting-edge chips to South Korea, as CEO Jensen Huang met President Lee Jae Myung and the heads of the country s biggest companies on the sidelines of the APEC summit. South Korea is home to two of the world s leading memory chip makers -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix -- which manufacture chips essential for artificial intelligence products and the data centres that the fast-evolving industry relies on.President Lee has also expressed his hope that the country can become the world s third AI power after the United States and China.Speaking to media after the announcement, Huang said that goal was ambitious .But, he said, there s no reason why Korea cannot achieve it -- you have the technology, you have the software expertise and you also have a natural ability to build manufacturing plants .Nvidia has been caught in the middle of that geopolitical tussle.Its chips are currently not sold in China due to a combination of Beijing government bans, US national security concerns and ongoing trade tensions.Huang has urged the United States to allow the sale of US-made AI chips in China in order to ensure Silicon Valley companies remain a global powerhouse in providing artificial intelligence. The US government and the Chinese government have to decide what role they would like Nvidia to play, Huang told reporters on Friday. I ve been very clear that having Nvidia technology in China is in the best interest of the United States and in the best interest of China as well, he said. I m optimistic, he added.And asked if he wanted Nvidia s most high-tech chip, the Blackwell, to be sold in China, he said: I hope so . But that s a decision for President Trump to make. Nvidia s chips featured in talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Gyeongju this week.Beijing has ramped up its chip industry to beat Washington s export restrictions on the critical component used to power AI systems.Under Friday s deal, 50,000 of the graphics processing units will go towards a new AI factory being built by Samsung Electronics.

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