South Korea's industrial sector and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) had jointly mapped out a 680 trillion won artificial intelligence blueprint, and that plan is now being rocked by what the market calls "Jensen Huang risk." If the NVIDIA CEO — widely regarded as the founding architect of the global AI industry — is ousted, there are fears the shockwave will spread outward from South Korea's semiconductor sector into autonomous driving, humanoid robots, data centers and a host of other future industries.
Over the past year, cooperation between South Korean companies and NVIDIA has long since moved beyond simple chip supply, upgrading into joint ventures, equity investments and joint technology development worth hundreds of trillions of won. As a result, Huang's fate could become a major variable capable of shaking South Korea's AI industry growth strategy.
Industry sources said on the 12th that the NVIDIA board is preparing to remove Huang. According to reports, the board plans to hold a meeting as early as that day to finalize his fate. NVIDIA had previously launched an independent investigation into allegations surrounding Huang. South Korean companies that have worked deeply with Huang are closely watching how events unfold, because his departure would be more than an ordinary management change.
Huang drove the technology roadmap of the AI chip market while shuttling between governments and companies to push large-scale investments into place. He met repeatedly with the chairmen of South Korea's major conglomerates, finalizing a series of cooperation plans spanning chip supply, AI infrastructure and physical AI. Over the past year, large NVIDIA-related cooperation projects publicly announced by South Korean companies totaled at least $510 billion, or roughly 680 trillion won. If Huang steps down, the scope, pace and direction of these cooperation agreements could all be reassessed and adjusted by the next management team.
SK Group is the most affected. In July this year, SK Group signed a letter of intent with NVIDIA on cooperation around AI infrastructure and next-generation memory, with a deal size exceeding $500 billion (667 trillion won). Under the plan, SK Telecom will build AI factories with up to 2 gigawatts of computing capacity based on NVIDIA's next-generation platform, while SK Hynix will jointly develop and supply next-generation AI memory products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM). This cooperation is completely different in nature from an ordinary supply contract: SK Hynix is no longer merely delivering memory chips to NVIDIA, but is deeply involved in the design stage of AI chips, while SK Telecom is responsible for building large-scale computing infrastructure. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with Huang in February this year to discuss AI chip and infrastructure cooperation, and the two sides have continued to broaden the boundaries of collaboration since then.
NAVER faces a more complex situation, as its relationship with NVIDIA has extended to the capital level. On the 6th, NVIDIA completed a $1 billion (about 1.3412 trillion won) investment to acquire a 4.13% stake in NAVER, turning the U.S. chipmaker from a technology partner into NAVER's third-largest shareholder. The core project of their cooperation is the global AI factory. NVIDIA contributed $1 billion, and global asset manager Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion in financing for computing infrastructure construction. Based on that plan, NAVER is expanding its Sejong data center and developing a GPU-as-a-service business.
The physical AI track is also on edge. In August, LG Group signed a memorandum of understanding to carry out strategic cooperation in robotics, AI factories and future mobility, with Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Huang attending together. LG Electronics plans to launch a next-generation bipedal robot in the first quarter of next year, developed based on NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T humanoid robot foundation model. The project combines LG's manufacturing capabilities with NVIDIA's robotics AI technology, and the two sides have formed a joint task force.
Hyundai Motor Group is no exception. Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun held a closed-door meeting with Huang at the CES show in Las Vegas in January this year to discuss cooperation in autonomous driving and other future mobility directions. Hyundai Motor subsequently announced plans to equip mass-production models with L2+ advanced driver assistance technology based on NVIDIA's platform in the first half of 2028. Samsung Electronics has also continued to expand cooperation in HBM supply and digital twins, with Chairman Lee Jae-yong meeting Huang multiple times.
Other South Korean companies deepening their ties with NVIDIA are also assessing the fallout: Doosan Robotics is developing a robot operating system based on NVIDIA's physical AI technology, and Doosan Group has extended cooperation to AI factory power infrastructure and semiconductor materials; Kakao Mobility recently signed a memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA on L4 autonomous driving technology cooperation.
The mainstream industry view is that even if Huang leaves, cooperation projects will not immediately suffer a severe blow. SK Hynix supplies the advanced memory indispensable to AI accelerator chips, and NVIDIA equally needs a stable HBM supply, making the existing supply chain difficult to replace quickly. But AI factories and next-generation joint technology development projects that are still in the investment and construction phase could be affected.
For NAVER, Brookfield's infrastructure financing and NVIDIA's equity investment have already entered substantive execution, and it would be difficult for Huang's removal alone to directly halt that investment. But if a new CEO reassesses the return on AI factory investment and the overseas infrastructure expansion strategy, there is room for adjustment in the subsequent investment pace, construction schedule and scope of technical support.
On the LG Group side, Huang's departure would not directly cancel the robot product launch, but it would affect the project's strategic weight and subsequent cooperation strategy. The core variable is how much priority LG's AI factory and physical AI ecosystem expansion can still receive in the new NVIDIA management's strategy.
For Hyundai Motor, NVIDIA is not just a chip supplier but a core partner in in-vehicle AI computing and joint autonomous driving technology research. The need for technical cooperation will not disappear with Huang's departure, but the platform development cycle, technical support system and long-term technology roadmap will all face new uncertainty.
Therefore, what the industry is focused on is not only whether Huang is removed, but also who will take over NVIDIA and how strategy will be adjusted afterward. The degree of impact varies enormously depending on whether Huang retains a board seat and maintains influence, and whether the new CEO inherits the existing cooperation framework. One industry figure said: "The AI chip supply chain has a very high degree of technological interdependence, so short-term cooperative relationships are hard to shake. But in fields such as AI factories, humanoid robots and autonomous driving, which are still in early-stage investment and require jointly defined technical standards, management's strategic judgment can introduce variables."
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