The US chip giant Nvidia will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to South Korea's government, as well as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai.
The companies will all deploy the AI chips in factories to make everything from semiconductors and robots to autonomous vehicles and meant that South Korea can now produce intelligence as a new export, chief executive Jensen Huang said.
Mr. Huang did not disclose the value of the South Korean deals.
It caps off a busy week for Nvidia, which on Wednesday became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion and on Thursday saw signs of a thaw in US-China trade relations that may mean it can export more of its chips to China.
Speaking at a CEO summit on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Gyeongju, South Korea, Mr. Huang added that with the chips, companies would be able to create digital twins with other factories around the world.
These deals form part of Nvidia's latest effort to expand AI infrastructure globally, to further integrate AI into products and services.
Nvidia has been striking international partnerships which helped it become the first company ever to be valued at $5 trillion(£3.8tn) on Wednesday.
The South Korea deals come as Nvidia grapples with fallout from the China-US trade war.
China made up more than a tenth of Nvidia's revenue last year, but the extent of China's access to Nvidia's chips has been a point of friction with Washington.
We used to have 95% share of the AI business in China. Now we're at 0% share. And I'm disappointed by that, Huang said in Gyeongju on Friday.
Trump said after his meeting with Xi on Thursday that Beijing will hold talks with Nvidia to discuss sales of its chips in China.
Trump said the talks remained between China and the US company, but that the US government would play the role of a referee of sorts.
On Friday, Huang said he would like to sell Nvidia's state-of-the-art Blackwell chips to China, although the decision needed to be made by the US President.
The US imposes export controls on sales to China of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips.
The tech boss had no news on China sales, or the talks between the two leaders but hopes they'll find a way to have new policies that allow chips back into China.
South Korea - which is already home to major semiconductor companies and vehicle manufacturers - wants to become a regional AI hub.
President Lee Jae Myung said he would prioritize AI investment after coming into office in the face of US tariffs.
With the Nvidia deal, the South Korean government plans to build computing infrastructure that it will control, a term known as sovereign AI.
More than 50,000 Nvidia chips will power data centers at the National AI Computing Center and facilities owned by South Korean companies like Kakao and Naver.
Nvidia is primarily a chip designer, and so outsources most of its physical production to manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and TSMC.
National security experts and some politicians have long voiced concerns about the US selling AI chips to China, saying that Beijing could use them to gain an advantage in AI, as well as military applications.
Both Huawei and Alibaba have unveiled their own chips that they say can rival Nvidia's products for the Chinese market.
Beijing has also reportedly prohibited local firms from buying from Nvidia, urging them to buy from Chinese chipmakers to give its domestic tech industry a boost.
Nvidia's share price was this week further boosted by a wave of new deals, including partnerships with the US Department of Energy, Nokia, Uber, and Stellantis - moves aimed at reassuring investors that AI investments will deliver returns.
