Ha Jungwoo, Chief of AI Future Planning, appears on JTBC YouTube
On Nvidia's supply of 260,000 GPUs: "A win-win for both sides"
"AI transformation will be a momentum to boost manufacturing competitiveness"
As Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has agreed to supply 260,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to South Korea in the future, the Presidential Office has projected that this could become a 'win-win' strategy for both sides. Ha Jungwoo, Chief of AI Future Planning at the Presidential Office, stated in an interview with JTBC YouTube's 'Genre Only Yeouido' on the 3rd, "Nvidia will use South Korea as a starting point to drive the transition towards physical AI industries."
Chief Ha explained, "Nvidia has been preparing for the physical AI sector since two years ago. They need to generate investment returns, and they see South Korea as a very promising success case." He added, "We, too, have many concerns about our competitiveness due to China's manufacturing development, but if we enhance our competitiveness through AI transformation, it can become a new growth momentum, making this a 'win-win strategy.'" He further elaborated, "As AI moves from the online world into the physical world, it will be deployed extensively in factories and other facilities. Physical AI requires locations with highly advanced factories and manufacturing systems."
Physical AI refers to technologies that enable physical devices-such as robots, autonomous vehicles, and factory automation equipment-to perform tasks without human instructions. In his keynote speech at CES 2025 in the United States this January, CEO Huang stated, "The next frontier for AI is physical AI," and emphasized, "AI has now begun to understand the laws of physics." He also noted, "Innovations like ChatGPT will soon appear in the field of robotics," and stressed, "We are entering an era of physical AI, where processing, inference, planning, and action are all possible."
Chief Ha also conveyed, "(CEO Huang said) 'The United States is extremely strong in software, but its manufacturing plants are lacking. In countries like Germany in the European Union, factories are excellent, but software is somewhat lacking. However, South Korea is competitive in both areas.'"
Regarding the overseas outflow of AI talent, he remarked, "Why do talents leave? Aside from compensation issues, it's because there are no GPUs. By creating an environment where research and development can be sufficiently conducted domestically without needing to join overseas big tech companies, we have untangled one knot in a tangled skein."
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is delivering a speech at the final special session of the 'APEC CEO Summit' held on the 31st of last month at Gyeongju Arts Center in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do. Photo by Kang Jinhyung
Nvidia, which controls 90% of the global AI semiconductor market, announced on the 31st of last month that it will collaborate with the South Korean government and companies to build an AI infrastructure based on a total of 260,000 GPUs. Specifically, Nvidia plans to supply 50,000 units of its latest AI semiconductor architecture, the Blackwell GPU, to the South Korean government; 50,000 units each to Samsung, SK, and Hyundai Motor; and 60,000 units to Naver Cloud. CEO Huang stated, "South Korea is at the center of the AI industrial revolution as a technology and manufacturing leader," and added, "AI infrastructure will become a core national infrastructure, just like power grids and ultra-high-speed communication networks."
However, on the 2nd (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump said in a CBS '60 Minutes' interview, in response to a question about whether he would allow Nvidia's cutting-edge chips to be sold to China, "No. I will not do that," and added, "No one outside the United States will have the most advanced (chips)." While this is seen as a statement aimed at keeping China, a rival nation, in check, attention is now focused on whether it will also affect future supplies to allied countries like South Korea.
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