Nvidia is officially hiring for a new research and development center in South Korea, marking the chipmaker’s first publicly recognized R&D facility in a country that already supplies critical components for its GPU empire.

CEO Jensen Huang announced the recruitment launch during a visit to South Korea around June 5, 2026, pointing to the country’s deep bench in AI, robotics, and semiconductors as the driving factors behind the decision. Job postings have already appeared with Seoul listed as the primary duty station.

What the center will actually do

The South Korea R&D center will focus on three areas: physical AI, robotics, and AI infrastructure solutions.

The center isn’t being built in a vacuum. Discussions are already underway with both the South Korean government and Hyundai Motor Group, suggesting the facility will have strong institutional backing from day one.

One proposed location is Saemangeum, a massive reclaimed land development on South Korea’s west coast. The idea is reportedly to mirror the kind of infrastructure Nvidia has already established at its sites in Singapore and Taiwan.

Huang has signaled that expansion of the site will be contingent on successful recruitment.

Building on existing partnerships

Nvidia and Hyundai signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2025 covering GPU supply and joint AI initiatives. Follow-up talks took place in January 2026, and the R&D center announcement appears to be the next logical step in that relationship.

South Korea is already deeply embedded in Nvidia’s supply chain. Samsung and SK Hynix manufacture the high-bandwidth memory chips that go into Nvidia’s GPUs. Setting up an R&D operation in the same country where your critical suppliers live makes obvious strategic sense.

Huang’s June visit included meetings with local business leaders, with discussions reportedly centered on customer-specific AI customization and infrastructure support.