SK to Transform Manufacturing with NVIDIA-Based "Manufacturing AI Cloud"

Commercialization of the Manufacturing AI Cloud
Manufacturing Innovation Driven by NVIDIA GPU AI Factory

On October 31, SK Group announced that it will establish a "Manufacturing AI Cloud" utilizing NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs) and the manufacturing AI platform "Omniverse" to drive artificial intelligence (AI) innovation within South Korea's manufacturing ecosystem. SK Group plans to open this platform to public institutions and startups related to manufacturing, enabling the Korean manufacturing sector to enhance productivity and efficiency based on AI. This marks the first time in Asia that the NVIDIA Omniverse platform is being used to build a manufacturing AI cloud, which will also be offered to external clients such as manufacturing startups.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won are talking with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, at the Korea-US Business Roundtable Reception held on August 25 (local time) at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC, USA. Photo by Yonhap News

On the same day, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, met at the "2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit" in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. They discussed cooperation strategies for the "Manufacturing AI Startup Alliance," semiconductor partnerships, and the development direction of the domestic manufacturing AI ecosystem.

Regarding the construction of the manufacturing AI cloud based on NVIDIA Omniverse, SK is currently the only company in South Korea to integrate the entire process from development to operation and use. This cloud will be accessible not only to SK Group’s manufacturing affiliates, such as SK Hynix, but also to the government, public institutions related to manufacturing, and domestic startups.

Omniverse is NVIDIA’s virtual simulation-based digital twin platform, which supports building and simulating manufacturing production processes in an online three-dimensional (3D) virtual space. A digital twin refers to technology that digitally replicates and constructs manufacturing process designs in a virtual space, enabling pre-verification of yield rates, errors, and more in actual manufacturing processes. Due to its benefits in improving yield, enhancing equipment maintenance efficiency, and reducing costs, global manufacturers are showing increasing interest in adopting this technology.

The Manufacturing AI Cloud will be built and operated by SK Telecom, based on more than 2,000 units of NVIDIA’s latest GPU (RTX Pro™ 6000 Blackwell Server Edition) to be introduced by SK Hynix, and will be utilized at SK Hynix’s Icheon Campus and the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. As the only domestic operator of a manufacturing AI cloud, SK aims to provide an environment where users can directly access Omniverse without relying on overseas data centers, thereby guaranteeing performance and data security optimized for the Korean manufacturing sector. NVIDIA will not only supply GPUs but also collaborate with SK to develop AI models tailored for domestic manufacturing, optimize software, support AI model training and inference, automate cloud operations, and tune simulations.

The NVIDIA RTX Pro™ 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs to be used in the Manufacturing AI Cloud can process large volumes of data at high speeds, driving global demand for servers required to implement AI in industrial settings, including generative AI, data analysis, and simulation. Both parties have agreed to jointly foster and support manufacturing AI startups in collaboration with venture capital firms such as IMM Investment, Korea Investment Partners, and SBVA.

Meanwhile, SK Group will build an AI infrastructure called "AI Factory," featuring more than 50,000 GPUs, together with NVIDIA in South Korea. The AI Factory is an "NVIDIA GPU-based AI industrial cluster" that includes the Manufacturing AI Cloud and the AI data center project in Ulsan. SK Group is currently pursuing a "hyperscale" AI data center project in Ulsan with a capacity of 100 MW, targeting completion by 2027, and aims to develop it into a major Asia-Pacific AI hub.

The AI Factory is expected to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing AI. SK Group plans to become an "industrial AI service provider" with comprehensive capabilities in digital twins, robotics, large language model (LLM) training and inference, and 3D simulation, through its collaboration with NVIDIA.

SK Hynix is a key AI memory partner for NVIDIA, maintaining its position as a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) such as HBM3 and HBM3E, based on its industry-leading HBM technology. Recently, SK Hynix concluded supply agreements with customers for HBM4, which offers the highest speed and performance in the industry, and will begin expanding sales in the fourth quarter, with plans for full-scale expansion next year.

Chairman Chey Tae-won stated, "SK Group, in collaboration with NVIDIA, is making AI the engine driving innovation across all Korean industries. This will enable the entire industrial sector to overcome limitations in scale, speed, and precision. Based on the NVIDIA AI Factory, SK Group plans to build infrastructure to power next-generation memory, robotics, digital twins, and intelligent AI agents."

On the same day, SK Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NVIDIA for joint research and development (R&D) of an "AI Network." SK Telecom will work with NVIDIA, domestic telecom operators, Samsung Electronics, Yonsei University, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to develop "AI-RAN" technology, a core component of sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications. AI-RAN is a technology that enables high-speed, low-latency transmission of AI data generated from multiple devices over wireless internet networks. SK Telecom, together with domestic companies and research institutes, will collaborate with NVIDIA on AI-RAN demonstration, standardization, and commercialization, aiming to establish South Korea as a global hub for AI-RAN technology validation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.