SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) – South Korea expects contracted deliveries of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to proceed without interruption despite controversy surrounding the chipmaker’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, Seoul’s deputy science minister said on Monday.
Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Jemyung told a parliamentary budget committee that 10,000 GPUs funded under a 2025 supplementary budget had already arrived and were in use.
GPUs planned for 2026 were under contract and expected to enter service this year, he said.
“We expect the production and delivery schedule of the contracted volumes to proceed without interruption,” Ryu said, adding that the ministry was closely monitoring developments and discussing pricing and schedules with Nvidia Korea.
Nvidia’s board of directors announced Sunday that it had launched an independent investigation after reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence services over his relationship with businesswoman Alice Huang.
The board said it had no reason “to believe that U.S. national security or Nvidia’s secrets had been compromised, while Huang said he would cooperate fully.”
News of the controversy coincided with the cancellation of a visit to South Korea by Huang’s daughter, Madison Huang, a senior director at Nvidia.
South Korean AI startup Rebellions said its planned visit to its headquarters and a partners’ dinner were canceled due to unavoidable internal circumstances at Nvidia.
Kakao Mobility also canceled a photo shoot and Q&A event with it, but said a commercial deal with Nvidia would go ahead in the presence of senior director Gaurav Agarwal.
Nvidia AI Day Seoul, a two-day event expected to attract around 2,000 attendees to discuss physical AI, agentic AI and infrastructure, is going ahead as planned according to South Korean media.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim and Heekyong Yang, editing by Ed Davies)
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