South Korea Challenging Nvidia's Dominance in Global AI Market

Nvidia remains the dominant player in the global AI infrastructure market, but South Korea's SK Telecom and chipmaker Rebellions are expanding an inference infrastructure ecosystem built around domestically developed semiconductors.

According to Counterpoint Research, as of July, 92% of sovereign large language models worldwide were trained using Nvidia AI chips. The research covered about 170 sovereign large language models developed across more than 80 countries and found that most rely heavily on Nvidia graphics processing units and its CUDA software ecosystem during model training.

The partnership between SK Telecom and Rebellions is seeking to expand the use of South Korean AI chips in an infrastructure market that remains centered on Nvidia technology. SK Telecom has been broadening its use of AI semiconductors through its partnership with Rebellions, deploying their neural processing units in systems supporting its A service.

SK Telecom's AI data center business generated 136.2 billion won ($92.1 million) and the company plans to develop 5 gigawatts of domestic AI data center capacity in stages beginning in 2029 as part of a longer-term plan to expand its total capacity to as much as 15GW.