폭풍우 속의 항해사, 젠슨 황이 던진 ‘AI 인프라’라는 확신 > K-wave Trends

The key point emphasized by CEO Jensen Huang is that AI is not just a fad, but is establishing itself as an ‘essential infrastructure’ that supports the foundation of the world, just as the Internet did in the past. He diagnosed that the introduction of AI has only just passed one year, and that a huge wave awaits in the future that will require all countries and companies around the world to build their own AI factories. From this perspective, his analysis is that the recent stock price plunge is not an event that undermines the intrinsic value of the mega trend called AI, but rather an opportunity for investors to secure the core driving force of the future at a low cost. He tried to calm the psychological turmoil in the market by emphasizing that we should focus on the big picture of the long-term productivity revolution and infrastructure expansion led by AI, rather than the short-term noise of the stock market.

What is particularly noteworthy about this meeting is that the strategic bond between NVIDIA and SK Hynix has expanded to the entire next-generation semiconductor roadmap. Beyond a simple parts supply relationship, the two companies agreed to joint development targeting a wide range of new markets, including the Vera Rubin AI supercomputer, CPU, RTX PC, and the robotics computing platform ‘Jetson Thor’. This means that SK Hynix has been deeply involved in NVIDIA's new project from the early design stage, solidifying its status as a key partner that proactively provides next-generation memory technology. Chairman Chey Tae-won also defined NVIDIA as the group's top priority customer and strategic partner, and made clear his willingness to cooperate in all areas to build an AI factory.

From a technical perspective, the cooperation between the two companies is expected to be a catalyst to hasten the advent of the ‘Physical AI’ era. By introducing NVIDIA's omnibus and virtual simulation technology into SK Hynix's manufacturing process, the semiconductor production site will be transformed into an optimized autonomous operating system through digital twins. This shows that AI is evolving beyond simply processing data to automating tasks and optimizing decision-making as an intelligent agent at actual physical manufacturing sites. Jensen Huang predicted that the synergy that would arise when Korea's excellent robotics infrastructure and manufacturing leadership were combined with these AI workflows would be enormous.

Meanwhile, this partnership is expanding its scope to expand domestic AI infrastructure through collaboration with SK Telecom. CEO Hwang pointed out that the AI ​​infrastructure in Korea has not yet been sufficiently built, and revealed that in the future, he will work with SK Telecom to maximize bandwidth and efficiency by injecting AI into the communication network itself. This reflects Nvidia's strong will to go beyond a hardware company that simply sells chips and establish itself as a practical infrastructure provider that designs and builds a national AI ecosystem. From SK Group's perspective, it has the opportunity to secure a stable source of sales through a multi-year contract with NVIDIA and at the same time accelerate digital transformation by transplanting cutting-edge AI technology throughout the group.

Nvidia's overwhelming growth prospects are behind Jensen Huang's confidence to overcome market anxiety head-on. He said that NVIDIA will achieve $1 trillion in sales next year through the Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms, and that the size of the memory and packaging supply chain needed to support this will also grow exponentially. This suggests that there will be a continuous trickle-down effect throughout the semiconductor ecosystem, including SK Hynix. Although negative macroeconomic factors such as concerns about interest rate hikes and a slump in technology stocks are currently weighing down the market, CEO Hwang has taken steps to restore market trust by repeatedly emphasizing that the fundamentals of the AI industry are strong enough to overcome these waves.