Nvidia Confirms 260,000 Advanced GPU Supply to South Korea Despite Huang's Resignation

• Dispatched: Nov 13, 2026 · 06:38 ET (11:38 UTC)

One-sentence summary: South Korean Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said Nvidia has confirmed at the corporate level that it will proceed with its previously announced plan to supply 260,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) to South Korea and continue existing cooperation, removing fears of supply disruption after Jensen Huang's resignation.

Verification status: ✓ Public statement by the South Korean minister on social media, cross-confirmed by Reuters and major South Korean financial media

Core Facts & Consensus Delta:

• On 2026-11-13 at 05:07 ET / 10:07 UTC, Reuters reported from Seoul that Bae said in a social media post that Nvidia had confirmed it would honour its pledge to supply 260,000 advanced GPUs to South Korea. The pledge was reached during last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, when Huang visited South Korea.
• On the morning of 2026-11-13 (Korea time), the ministry's second vice minister chaired a working-level meeting with Nvidia, where both sides confirmed that GPU supply and cooperation with South Korean companies would proceed as previously announced, unaffected by the leadership change.
• South Korea's government plan to procure 50,000 GPUs for itself is also on track: of the roughly 35,000 units the government will buy directly, about 21,000 have been secured, with the remaining roughly 14,000 due for delivery by early 2027.
• Background: Nvidia announced on 2026-11-12 at 08:48 ET / 13:48 UTC that Huang had stepped down as chief executive and that chief financial officer Colette Kress had become interim chief executive. This is the first sovereign-level cooperation confirmation since the resignation. Officials have not disclosed the model mix, delivery timetable or contract value for the 260,000 GPUs.

Supply-Chain & Market Read-Through:

• For South Korea's sovereign AI compute build-out, the confirmation removes delivery uncertainty tied to the leadership transition: the delivery pace of the government's own procurement directly sets the timetable for domestic model training and inference capacity coming online.
• For HBM and memory makers (SK Hynix KRX: 000660, Samsung Electronics KRX: 005930, Micron MU), every high-end Nvidia accelerator ships with high-bandwidth memory attached, so confirmation of the South Korea-bound shipments means the associated HBM demand allocation is sustained.
• Linking South Korean-made AI chips to Nvidia's platform via NVLink, if implemented, would give domestic AI chipmakers a channel into Nvidia's ecosystem, while hosting Nvidia's GTC developer conference in South Korea would further bind the local developer community to it.

Next Catalysts & Watchpoints:

• Nvidia fiscal Q3 2026 results: after the US market close on 2026-11-17, earnings call 17:00 ET / 22:00 UTC — watch commentary on sovereign orders and data-centre demand.
• South Korean government GPU delivery milestone: the remaining roughly 14,000 units are due by early 2027 — watch for follow-up delivery announcements.

Sources:

• Reuters (Published: 2026-11-13 05:07 ET / 10:07 UTC)
• Seoul Economic Daily (Published: 2026-11-13, Korea time)
• Money Today (Published: 2026-11-13 04:25 ET / 09:25 UTC)

Information only, not investment advice.