Announcement Overview

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix disclosed that they will enter into long‑term memory‑chip supply partnerships with major U.S. technology companies, with the total contract value estimated at $950 billion. The announcement was made public during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco, where he convened an AI summit that included executives from Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Broadcom.

Deal Breakdown

  • SK Hynix committed to supply $750 billion worth of memory chips to U.S. customers, explicitly naming Nvidia as a key recipient. In addition, SK Hynix announced a separate initiative exceeding $500 billion that will fund next‑generation memory development and the construction of large AI data‑centres with Nvidia and other partners.
  • Samsung Electronics pledged to provide $200 billion of chips to Broadcom Inc, reinforcing its role as a supplier of custom processors and networking equipment for AI data‑centre workloads.
  • Both chipmakers indicated that they have also begun discussions with Anthropic to secure direct memory capacity for emerging AI developers.

Ancillary Projects and Timeline

SK Telecom Co Ltd ADR disclosed plans to build a two‑gigawatt AI data‑centre that will integrate Nvidia’s Vera Rubin processors with SK Hynix’s HBM4 memory modules. The first phase of this facility is slated to become operational in 2027.

Strategic Context

South Korean officials estimate that U.S. companies account for 80 % to 90 % of the demand driving the country’s planned semiconductor expansion, underscoring the importance of the announced partnerships. The agreements are positioned against a backdrop of rising high‑bandwidth memory and conventional DRAM demand for AI servers, with current memory shortages prompting higher prices and prompting technology firms to secure capacity years in advance.

Policy Initiative

President Lee introduced the “San Francisco AI Declaration,” a bilateral framework aimed at deepening technology cooperation between South Korea and the United States. Senior representatives from Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor and Naver attended the summit, signalling broad corporate support for the initiative.