Samsung and SK Group Announce $950 Billion AI Chip Push

South Korea's two largest chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK Group, have unveiled long-term AI chip supply partnerships with major US technology companies worth a combined $950 billion, in what industry observers describe as possibly the largest semiconductor supply commitment in history.

How the Deals Break Down

The announcement came after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung convened an AI summit in San Francisco on Friday, bringing together the country's semiconductor leaders with top US tech executives. SK Group has committed to $750 billion in long-term memory chip supply partnerships, including SK Hynix's partnership with Nvidia valued at more than $500 billion. Separately, Samsung Electronics signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with Broadcom worth up to $200 billion, spanning advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply, cutting-edge foundry manufacturing, and next-generation packaging through 2030.

It's worth noting what the headline number actually represents: the $950 billion reflects the projected value of committed forward purchases over the next five years, not a single upfront cash transfer or investment.

Nvidia and SK Group also unveiled a separate initiative valued at $500 billion spanning large-scale AI data centers and next-generation memory, which includes a long-term partnership with SK Hynix to secure next-generation memory supply for Nvidia and jointly develop HBM for AI training, AI agents, and physical AI applications. SK Telecom, meanwhile, plans to build a two-gigawatt facility using Nvidia's Vera Rubin processors alongside SK Hynix's HBM4 memory, with the first phase expected to come online in 2027.

Who Was in the Room

President Lee met separately with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan before the summit. Also attending were Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, and Microsoft's Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure President Rani Borkar. Samsung and SK Hynix have also discussed supply agreements with Anthropic, as AI developers increasingly seek more direct access to memory capacity.

Why It's Happening Now

The deals reflect a scramble among AI leaders to lock in supply as demand for chips and computing infrastructure continues to outpace availability. High-bandwidth memory — the specialized chips that sit inside AI accelerators powering data centers worldwide — has become one of the industry's most sought-after components, and South Korea's chipmakers, alongside US-based Micron, are among the only three companies in the world capable of producing it at the leading edge.

South Korean officials estimate that US companies account for 80% to 90% of the demand driving the country's planned semiconductor expansion. Seoul has separately pledged to triple its AI spending this year as it seeks to position itself alongside the US and China among the world's top AI powers.

For Samsung and SK, the agreements provide rare revenue visibility years in advance, allowing both companies to plan capital expenditures, hire engineers, and expand factory capacity with greater confidence.