NVIDIA partners with Naver and SK Telecom to build gigawatt-scale AI factories in Korea

NVIDIA Expands AI Infrastructure Partnerships in Korea

NVIDIA has unveiled ambitious plans to scale AI infrastructure in South Korea through strategic partnerships with internet conglomerate Naver and telecommunications leader SK Telecom 1

1

. Both companies will build gigawatt-scale AI facilities using the NVIDIA DSX platform, marking a significant expansion in the region's capacity to meet global AI demand. The announcement comes as enterprises, startups, nations, and AI labs scramble to secure infrastructure capable of supporting the next generation of AI applications, from agentic AI to physical AI deployments.

Naver will expand its AI infrastructure starting at 55 megawatts with plans to scale to gigawatt capacity, beginning with expansion at its GAK Sejong data center 4

4

. SK Telecom plans to build a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud in Korea, with its first AI factory scheduled to come online in 2027 3

3

. These facilities will serve as critical infrastructure for training, post-training, and inference workloads, transforming how Korea's industries access and deploy AI capabilities.

NVIDIA DSX Platform Powers Rapid AI Factory Deployment

The NVIDIA DSX platform serves as the architectural blueprint for these massive buildouts, combining accelerated computing, systems, software, and partner technologies to optimize both time to production and token performance per megawatt 5

5

. DSX MaxLPS software enables AI factories to deliver the lowest token cost by maximizing token performance per megawatt, while DSX OS provides open source, modular software for lifecycle management, runtime consistency, health automation, and multi-tenant operations.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, emphasized the strategic importance of these partnerships: "Every company and every country needs AI factory infrastructure to turn data into intelligence. NVIDIA AI Clouds bring full-stack AI factories closer to the regions, industries and developers building the next generation of AI, from model training to real-time inference and AI agents" 2

2

.

Korea Positions Itself as Regional AI Innovation Hub

The infrastructure investments reflect Korea's ambition to become a leading player in Asia's AI ecosystem. SK Telecom's AI Cloud will power sovereign AI, physical AI, and enterprise AI services for companies across Korea, with plans to expand to greater Asia regions 3

3

. Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, stated: "Through our close partnership with NVIDIA, we have now secured full-stack AI infrastructure capabilities, from chips to data center operations. We will work with NVIDIA to tackle GPU, memory and energy challenges and become a leading AI factory player shaping Asia's AI ecosystem."

Naver is advancing its HyperCLOVA X models by fine-tuning the NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra open model, delivering more capable and culturally fluent models for Korean and global enterprise customers 4

4

. The company also plans to launch an AI Agent Platform in Korea in the second half of the year, powered by NVIDIA NemoClaw blueprints. Additionally, Naver is developing a Seoul World Model using proprietary urban street-view data and spatial modeling technology, building on NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models.

Global AI Cloud Ecosystem Accelerates Across Six Continents

The Korean partnerships are part of a broader expansion of the NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem, which now spans six continents following additions in Africa and South America [2](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-unless otherwise specified, this will also run on an AI Cloud ecosystem/). Partners including CoreWeave, Firmus, IREN, and Nscale are expanding AI infrastructure to support frontier model development, enterprise AI, and high-volume inference. Firmus Technologies is expanding its footprint across South Australia and Southeast Asia through Project Southgate, developing AI factories in Tasmania, Melbourne, South Australia, and New South Wales with emphasis on renewable power and advanced cooling 2

2

.

For governments and regulated industries, regional AI clouds support sovereign controls and local compliance requirements. For developers and enterprises, they reduce friction in accessing accelerated computing for AI agents, enterprise copilots, and digital workers that must run close to users and data. The ecosystem's rapid growth signals a fundamental shift in how organizations approach AI deployment, moving from experimental projects to production-scale infrastructure capable of supporting the token-hungry applications driving today's AI revolution. As SK Telecom becomes an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, it joins a global program delivering AI performance and economics through specialized cloud services designed specifically for energy efficiency and operational scale 3

3

.