Episode summary
Special Edition: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Investing in South Korea | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 18 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec, Ed Ludlow · Guests: Jensen Huang
Summary
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says South Korea is entering a “golden ages” moment as the company expands its footprint with local partners. He describes a set of agreements that include a partnership with SK Group to support more than $500 billion of business between the two companies, plus a planned $1 billion investment in Naver to help scale Korea’s AI cloud infrastructure. Huang argues that Korea’s semiconductor and industrial base make it a critical part of the global AI buildout.
He also says Nvidia remains constrained across the supply chain, especially in HBM memory, but also in land, power, and construction workers for data centers. In his view, the semiconductor industry will need to grow roughly tenfold over the next decade because AI will be built not just for people, but for AI agents and robots using computers too.
The conversation turns to open versus closed AI models, where Huang argues that open models are essential for safety, security, innovation, and sovereignty. He says the world will use both kinds of models, but companies should build their own AI only where they must. He also says China and the United States will both keep advancing AI because extraordinary researchers will keep finding answers.
Key takeaways
- Jensen Huang says Nvidia’s South Korea push includes a more than $500 billion business partnership with SK Group and a $1 billion investment in Naver.
- Huang says Korea is in a “golden ages” period because its semiconductor and industrial businesses are booming and it can help build global AI infrastructure.
- Huang says Nvidia is constrained by HBM memory, land, power, and construction capacity, which will keep AI infrastructure growth throttled for years.
- Huang argues the semiconductor industry may need to be 10 times larger over the next decade as AI agents and robots become major computer users.
- Huang says open models matter for safety, security, innovation, and sovereignty, and that the world will use both open and closed AI systems.
Notable quotes
“This is the golden ages for Korea. As you know, their semiconductor business is booming. their industrial business is booming”
“we're announcing a whole bunch of partnerships with them”
“the semiconductor industry has really changed. And the reason for that um because we used to build computers for people to use”
How the episode opens
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Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. I'm Monica Ricks in the Bloomberg newsroom in New York with a special conversation. Bloomberg tech host Ed Lello sat down with Nvidia CEO Jensen Hang to discuss the tech giant's latest investments in South Korea, which includes teaming up with SK Group to build new data centers and investing a billion dollars in internet and cloud service provider Naver.
Let's listen into a portion of their conversation coming not long after the NVIDIA CEO appeared at a Korean AI summit.
Jensen, I think we just start with the basics. Like Korea is incredibly important to to the AI buildout globally.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai data centers
- south korea investment
- semiconductor boom
- nvidia leadership
- ai infrastructure
Companies and tickers mentioned
- NVDA
- Nvidia
- SK Group
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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