Nvidia, SK Telecom, Rebellions forge AI chip alliance

Nvidia, SK Telecom and Korean chipmaker Rebellions signed an agreement Monday to bring locally developed AI processors into Nvidia data center systems, the Ministry of Science and ICT said.

Under the memorandum of understanding, signed at Nvidia's AI Day Seoul event at Coex, the firms will use Nvidia's NVLink Fusion technology to link Rebellions' neural processing units with Nvidia GPUs as SK Telecom develops AI data center infrastructure.

NVLink Fusion lets third-party chipmakers integrate their processors into Nvidia's rack-scale computing architecture, allowing different types of accelerators to operate within a shared infrastructure.

For Rebellions, the deal creates an opportunity to test its chips within Nvidia's data center architecture and seek customers overseas. The ministry said access to Nvidia's platform could help Korean chipmakers move beyond standalone product development.

The agreement comes as demand for AI inference, which uses trained models to generate responses, drives interest in specialized chips designed to lower operating costs. The ministry said combining NPUs and GPUs could help data centers balance performance and power use.

The ministry said it wanted to extend the partnership model to other domestic NPU makers. It has also been pursuing similar links with AMD, seeking to give Korean chip designers access to multiple global computing platforms.

Separately, the ministry and Nvidia held an AI startup partnership forum on Monday, bringing together 22 Korean companies working in semiconductors, AI models, robotics, video analysis and computing infrastructure.

Participants included Upstage, Twelve Labs, FuriosaAI, DeepX and Rebellions. Nvidia executives Deepu Talla and Jonathan Cohen also attended.

"We hope this forum will help Korean companies find opportunities for technological and business cooperation with Nvidia and ultimately expand into global markets together," said Lee Do-kyu, deputy minister for ICT policy at the ICT ministry.

The ministry pledged support for follow-up work, including joint research, commercialization and eventual overseas sales.