The collaboration includes US$50 million per year in compute contributions over an initial five-year period
NVIDIA has partnered with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to establish a joint artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory dedicated to advancing agentic AI for South Korea. The collaboration, valued at US$300 million, aims to accelerate AI research, strengthen the country’s talent pipeline, and develop AI models tailored to Korean language and industry applications.
The new laboratory will be housed at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI in Seoul and will combine NVIDIA’s full-stack AI technologies, NVIDIA Nemotron open models, and AI Cloud Partner computing infrastructure with KAIST’s research expertise in AI, semiconductor technology, robotics, and engineering.
The collaboration includes US$50 million per year in compute contributions over an initial five-year period, providing researchers with access to the latest NVIDIA AI infrastructure through local NVIDIA Cloud Partners.
As part of the initiative, the joint lab will support at least 10 KAIST researchers annually, offering internship opportunities at NVIDIA while creating pathways for full-time employment for exceptional Korean AI researchers. The program is intended to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry and help retain AI talent within South Korea.
The research lab will focus on developing AI models optimised for the Korean language and Korea-specific use cases, leveraging NVIDIA Nemotron open models to support enterprise and national AI deployments.
Commenting on the collaboration, Bill Dally, Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President of Research at NVIDIA, said, “Korea is home to leading AI researchers and is one of the world’s most advanced technology ecosystems. The joint NVIDIA-KAIST research lab will provide a foundation for the next frontier of AI research to accelerate AI models and agent systems built for Korea’s industries, language and future.”
Hyunwoo Kim, incoming faculty member at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI and the designated head of the joint lab, said the partnership will combine frontier talent, large-scale infrastructure, and close industry-academia collaboration to advance AI research while helping South Korea attract and retain top AI scientists.
