Alliances, policy, memory supercycle define Korea’s AI push in 2025

Korea’s artificial intelligence (AI) push met a decisive moment in 2025 as global alliances, national policy and hardware demand aligned to create noteworthy momentum. Nvidia and OpenAI deepened cooperation with Korea, unveiling plans for large-scale AI infrastructure backed by the government and local conglomerates. At the same time, the government elevated sovereign AI to a core national strategy by sharply increasing budgets, and the National Assembly passed a comprehensive AI framework law set to take effect next year, making Korea the first country to implement such policies. Companies have moved beyond developing language models to expand real-world applications of AI, while the hardware sector is enjoying a memory supercycle driven by surging data center demand. The boom has created supply bottlenecks not only in AI-specific high-bandwidth memory (HBM) but also in conventional memory semiconductors. Deepening ties with global AI giants Nvidia is positioned at the center of Korea’s efforts to secure sufficient AI accelerators. In October, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Korea f