A spate of agreements Nvidia has reached with South Korean companies presents a long-term road map for the country to expand its role in the semiconductor and physical AI industries, observers say.

The most significant deal Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made during his whirlwind three-day trip to Seoul that ended on Sunday was with SK Telecom to build AI infrastructure, including factories.

An AI factory is a data centre running an end-to-end operational system that continuously collects and processes data, and refines algorithms to generate intelligence on a massive scale.

The two companies agreed to pursue a “full-stack AI cloud” collaboration spanning everything from chips to data centre operations, based on Nvidia’s DSX platform.

DSX integrates high-performance Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) hardware with an optimised software stack – enabling enterprises, researchers and developers to train and deploy massive AI models.

SK Telecom plans to build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud and AI factory in South Korea by 2027 using Nvidia’s DSX platform.