According to TechNews, NVIDIA and South Korea's SK Group announced the launch of an AI cooperation plan valued at more than $500 billion, covering next-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and the construction of large-scale AI data centers (E1). CNA's report corroborates this, stating that NVIDIA and SK Group jointly announced a plan "exceeding $500 billion" that covers large AI data centers and next-generation memory, with NVIDIA itself making the statement (E7). Reuters, as cited by CNA, added that the plan includes a long-term partnership with SK Hynix to secure NVIDIA's access to next-generation memory (E8).
Per TechNews, NVIDIA will establish a long-term partnership with SK Hynix to jointly develop next-generation HBM, aiming to secure the critical memory supply needed for future AI GPUs (E2). CNA's Reuters-sourced report frames this the same way: the long-term SK Hynix partnership is meant to guarantee NVIDIA's access to next-generation memory, with both companies co-developing HBM for use in AI training, AI agents, and physical AI applications (E8). Both outlets independently converge on SK Hynix as the designated long-term HBM development partner within the broader $500 billion plan.
TechNews reports that SK Telecom will build an AI data center with total capacity exceeding 2GW, using NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform and SK Hynix's HBM4 memory, with the first facility expected to come online in 2027 (E3). CNA's account, attributed to NVIDIA's own statement, matches this closely: as part of the plan, SK Telecom will construct a 2-gigawatt AI data center built around NVIDIA's Vera Rubin chips and SK Hynix's HBM4 high-bandwidth memory, with the first facility slated for 2027 (E9). The two sources describe the same facility, chip platform, memory type, capacity figure, and launch year.
TechNews reports that the 2GW power scale of the SK Telecom data center is roughly equivalent to the electricity demand of 1.5 million households, which the outlet says reflects South Korea's acceleration of investment in large-scale AI computing infrastructure (E4). No other evidence in the pack provides a comparable household-equivalent figure, making this the only quantified household-scale benchmark available for the project.
Beyond the SK Group deal, TechNews reports that NVIDIA announced a $1 billion investment to help NAVER and Brookfield expand a Korean AI data center, with NVIDIA stating that the investment would expand the NAVER AI data center's scale by more than three times and have it fully adopt NVIDIA's AI computing platform (E6). CNA similarly reports that NVIDIA said it would partner with South Korean internet company Naver and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management to expand Naver's AI data center in South Korea (E10). Both sources confirm the same three-party arrangement, though only TechNews cites the specific $1 billion figure and the "more than three times" scale-up claim.
According to TechNews, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said South Korea is entering a key window of opportunity for AI development, and that with its globally leading semiconductor, memory, and manufacturing capabilities, the country already possesses the full conditions needed to build world-class AI infrastructure (E5). This is the only evidence in the pack attributing a direct quote to NVIDIA's CEO regarding Korea's infrastructure positioning.
Taken together, the evidence shows a single $500 billion-plus framework (E1, E7) built on two concrete, dated commitments: a long-term SK Hynix HBM co-development agreement (E2, E8) and a 2GW SK Telecom data center using Vera Rubin and HBM4 slated for 2027 (E3, E9), whose power draw TechNews equates to 1.5 million households (E4). Layered alongside this SK-centered plan is a separate $1 billion NVIDIA investment in the NAVER-Brookfield data center expansion (E6, E10), reported by the same two dates (July 24–25, 2026) but involving different partners. NVIDIA's CEO's framing of Korea's semiconductor, memory, and manufacturing strengths (E5) is the only qualitative rationale offered in the evidence for why these two separate Korea-focused investments — the SK Group plan and the NAVER-Brookfield expansion — are being announced together.
According to TechNews and China Times reports, Meta is preparing a $12 billion bond sale through a BlackRock-backed SPV for a Texas data center, with investors demanding yields above 7%—about 0.4 percentage points higher than Meta's October 2025 Hyperion deal. MoneyDJ reports Alphabet's Q2 free cash flow turned negative for the first time as capex surged, underscoring investor unease over AI spending.
According to a CNA report (carried also by CTS), Taiwan's King Slide (川湖) says its Houston plant will start mass production in the third quarter, while Chenbro (勤誠) has already opened a US NCT site in March and signed a Dallas plant deal in May, as both AI supply-chain suppliers post sharp first-half revenue gains.
According to CNA (中央社) and Technews (科技新報), new U.S. Section 301 tariffs took effect July 24, setting Taiwan's rate at 10% versus 12.5% for China and Japan. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院) president Chang Chien-yi called the outcome favorable, while analyst Liu Pei-chen said impact on Taiwan's chip sector is limited, with advanced nodes largely shielded and mature nodes more exposed to a pending overcapacity probe.