Nvidia’s Seoul Offensive: From Vera Rubin Chips to Robot Brains, a New Industrial Blueprint Takes Shape

Jensen Huang's Seoul trip secures SK Hynix memory for Vera Rubin, partners with LG, Hyundai, and others to expand Nvidia into Physical AI and robotics.

Jensen Huang didn’t spend the week in a Silicon Valley data center. He was in Seoul, stitching together a sprawling web of partnerships that redefines what Nvidia is building — and for whom. The message is unmistakable: the next stage of growth isn’t just about bigger language models. It’s about machines that can move, sense, and act.

At the heart of the trip is a massive technology pact with SK Hynix. The South Korean memory giant will supply roughly two-thirds of the high-bandwidth memory for Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform, whose first chips are slated to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2026. Memory has become the industry’s tightest bottleneck, and Huang is locking down supply years in advance.

Vera Rubin itself represents a leap. Nvidia says training performance will jump 3.5-fold versus the current Blackwell generation, while inference workloads will see a fivefold improvement. The architecture uses TSMC’s 3-nanometer process and is designed for so-called agentic AI — systems capable of reasoning through multi-step physical tasks autonomously.

Beyond the Data Center, into the Factory Floor

The deal with SK Hynix is only one piece of a broader push into what Nvidia calls Physical AI. The company signed a string of agreements with South Korean industrial heavyweights:

• LG Group is buying 10,000 Blackwell GPUs this year and plans to start mass-producing robot actuators. Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T foundation models will serve as the “brain” for LG’s CLOi home robots and industrial humanoids.
• SK Telecom will build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud by 2027.
• Naver is expanding its “Gak Sejong” data center to gigawatt capacity.
• Hyundai is exploring a potential billion-dollar project in Saemangeum focused on robotics and hydrogen technology.
• Doosan will integrate Nvidia’s technology into industrial equipment.

Huang also met with Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, promising to send 260,000 graphics processors to South Korea. In return, Seoul will host a dedicated Nvidia research center. The CEO praised the country’s strong nuclear power sector, calling stable electricity generation a decisive advantage for energy-hungry AI facilities.

Wall Street’s Reaction: Noise or Opportunity?

The stock initially took a hit. Nvidia shares shed nearly 7% in the week before the Seoul announcements and now trade at around €180 — the two sources cite €179.92 and €180.82, a negligible spread. Huang described the pullback as “noise” and a clear buying opportunity. Since the start of the year, the stock remains up roughly 12%.

Technically, the shares are holding above the 200-day moving average of €161.58 and the 50-day average near €175, which has acted as support. The relative strength index sits at about 48, neither overbought nor technically damaged. The all-time high of €202.50, set in mid-May, still represents upside of more than 12% from current levels.

Analysts see room to run. The consensus price target stands at around €282, implying a rally of more than 55%. That gap isn’t driven by near-term earnings expectations alone — it reflects the value of future revenue streams from robotics and sovereign AI infrastructure that will start materializing after 2027.

A Changing Capital Allocation Story

Nvidia continues to return cash to shareholders. The company is executing an $80 billion share buyback program and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, with an ex-dividend date of June 4. While the dividend is largely symbolic, it signals that Nvidia is transitioning from pure growth-investment mode to a more mature capital-return phase.

With a market capitalization of roughly €5.4 trillion, Nvidia is no longer just a chipmaker. It is building the global infrastructure for what Huang calls the “intelligence economy.” And by planting deep roots in South Korea — from memory supply to robot brains to nuclear-powered data centers — the company is laying the groundwork for its next chapter, one that reaches far beyond the server rack.