NVIDIA and SK Hynix Announce Multi-Year Partnership to Secure Advanced Memory Supply; Jensen Huang States "Memory Shortage Will Persist for a Considerable Period"

On Monday, NVIDIA and SK Hynix officially announced a multi-year technical partnership. The two parties will conduct joint research and development on next-generation AI memory chips and secure long-term supply guarantees. This collaboration directly addresses persistent market concerns regarding memory supply bottlenecks during the expansion of AI infrastructure.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang clearly stated on Sunday evening in Seoul, during a meeting with SK Group executives, that the memory shortage situation "will last for several years." According to Reuters, Huang remarked while dining with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and other executives, "Everything in the entire industrial supply chain, from wafers to packaging to silicon photonics, is in short supply because demand is simply too high."

The announcement came at a highly sensitive time for the market. Last Friday, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeted more than 10% in a single day, marking its largest one-day drop since March 2020, causing SK Hynix's stock price to fall sharply. In pre-market trading on NEXTRADE on Monday, the share prices of both SK Hynix and Samsung dropped by more than 10% at one point. Investors are closely watching whether this official announcement can boost market confidence.

Cooperation Covers Multiple Product Lines, with Joint R&D Spanning the Full AI Stack

According to NVIDIA's official announcement, the core of this multi-year agreement lies in deeply aligning SK Hynix's memory R&D roadmap with NVIDIA's AI infrastructure roadmap. The two parties will jointly develop next-generation memory products for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin AI supercomputer, Vera CPU, RTX Spark personal computers, and the Jetson Thor robotic computing platform, covering three major market directions: AI infrastructure, personal AI, and physical AI.

NVIDIA emphasized in its statement that the agreement explicitly supports the supply guarantee of advanced memory, aiming to address structural challenges such as long product development cycles, complex manufacturing processes, and capital-intensive investments for advanced memory products, ensuring that memory supply can keep pace with the continuous expansion of global AI factories.

Huang stated in the announcement, "AI factories are the engine of the next industrial revolution, and advanced memory is crucial to their performance. SK Hynix is an exceptional partner for NVIDIA, playing a core role in delivering advanced memory technology for NVIDIA's AI computing platforms." Chey Tae-won added, "SK Hynix and NVIDIA have been accumulating capabilities for this over many years, and this partnership reflects the depth of our cooperation."

Technical Cooperation Extends to Chip Design and Smart Manufacturing

In addition to the joint R&D of memory products, the cooperation between the two parties also extends to semiconductor design and manufacturing. SK Hynix will adopt NVIDIA's CUDA-X libraries and PhysicsNeMo framework to accelerate semiconductor simulation, Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) workflows, and the computational efficiency of internal engineering code, while exploring tripartite collaboration models with electronic design automation software vendors.

In the field of smart manufacturing, SK Hynix will combine NVIDIA's Omniverse platform, OpenUSD workflows, and the cuOpt decision optimization engine to build a digital twin system for fabs, laying the foundation for fully autonomous fab operations. The two parties will also explore connecting digital twins with existing legacy software and agent AI workflows to promote the automation and intelligence of manufacturing decisions.

Market Awaits Pre-Market Signals Amidst the Shadow of Friday's Plunge

The market background for this partnership announcement is quite complex. Last Friday, the US semiconductor sector suffered a heavy blow, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping more than 10% in a single day, the largest one-day decline in nearly six years, while SK Hynix's stock price also fell significantly.

Entering this week, pre-market trading data from NEXTRADE showed that the share prices of SK Hynix and Samsung both dropped by more than 10% in pre-market trading at one point, indicating that market sentiment remains cautious. On Friday evening, many market participants expressed concern about potential further selling at Monday's opening.

Whether the official partnership announcement between NVIDIA and SK Hynix can reverse market expectations and provide support for the semiconductor sector will be a key focus of observation after the Asian markets open on Monday.