South Korea calms fears over 260,000 Nvidia chip order after Jensen Huang’s exit

The South Korean government said Nvidia’s existing partnership commitments to Seoul remain intact despite disgraced CEO Jensen Huang’s departure from the artificial intelligence giant.

However, uncertainties linger as remarks by Elon Musk and others suggest that much of the cooperation may have relied on Huang’s personal verbal commitments.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said it held a meeting with Nvidia officials on Friday, a day after Huang resigned as the company’s CEO, and confirmed that plans to supply graphics processing units (GPUs) to South Korea and other collaborative projects remain on track.

“The second vice-minister presided over a meeting with Nvidia and reconfirmed that the company plans to proceed with the supply of 260,000 GPUs and cooperation with Korean companies as previously announced,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said on social media on Friday.

“We also agreed to continue ongoing projects, including connecting Korean AI chips with Nvidia’s platform through NVLink, building AI computing infrastructure, conducting joint research on physical AI, fostering talent and bringing Nvidia’s developer conference GTC to Korea.”

During Huang’s visit to South Korea in October last year, Nvidia promised to supply a total of 260,000 GPUs, with Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and the government each securing 50,000. Naver Cloud agreed to receive the remaining 60,000.

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The rise and fall of Jensen Huang, who has resigned as Nvidia’s CEO

According to Bae, the plan is proceeding as scheduled. Of the 50,000 GPUs allocated to the government, 35,000 will be procured directly, while the remaining 15,000 will be secured through the National AI Computing Centre.

Bae said the government has already secured computing capacity equivalent to around 21,000 Nvidia B200 GPUs, with the remainder expected to arrive by early 2027.

Naver’s partnership with Nvidia is also resulting in tangible outcomes. Nvidia has pledged to invest in Naver as part of their joint AI data centre business and paid 1.34 trillion won (US$1 billion) through Naver’s capital increase on November 6 to acquire a 4.13 per cent stake in the Korean mobile platform company.

Despite signs that Nvidia’s existing commitments to South Korea were insulated from the fallout of Huang’s disgraceful departure, industry observers still see uncertainties, as Huang reportedly relied heavily on verbal agreements rather than formal contracts in conducting business.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media on Saturday that “Jensen drove supply chain brilliantly at Nvidia, but many of those deals were a handshake with Jensen, not a written contract”, adding that “without Jensen, at least some of those critical deals will be lost”.

Musk also shared a response from Grok citing Huang’s podcast interviews in March and April. In the interview, Huang said Nvidia had no formal legal contract with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company despite conducting hundreds of billions of dollars in business over the past 30 years.

Huang described the relationship as one governed by a form of “rough justice”, with the two companies placing complete trust in each other.

Musk said that Huang always kept his promises, adding, “We’d put together a purchase order at some point later, but I never for a second thought it wouldn’t happen.” His remarks suggest that trust in Huang personally played a main role in securing business deals.

“Whether formal contracts exist in Huang’s absence would vary from deal to deal, but commitments made verbally may need to be reviewed to ensure they can result in actual deliveries,” an industry official said.