Samsung, SK Group's $950 Billion AI Deals With US Tech Giants Draw Questions Over What the Math Really Means

South Korea unveiled a sweeping $950 billion package of artificial intelligence chip and infrastructure deals involving Samsung Electronics, SK Group and major U.S. technology firms this week, a announcement Seoul's government hailed as proof of the country's central role in the global AI supply chain. But the figure has quickly drawn scrutiny from industry analysts and journalists who say the number blends revenue, expenditures and undisclosed estimates in ways that make it difficult to verify.

A high-profile summit in San Francisco

The deals were announced following an AI summit hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in San Francisco on July 24, which brought together top executives from Nvidia, Broadcom, Microsoft, Anthropic and other major U.S. technology firms alongside leaders from Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and Naver. At the summit, Lee unveiled what he called the "San Francisco AI Declaration," outlining Seoul's broader ambitions for technological cooperation with the United States, describing plans to make the country's "dynamic AI ecosystem" available to help expand global markets for both industrial and personal AI applications. South Korea's presidential office described the overall $950 billion figure as a landmark achievement demonstrating the country's position as a key player in the global AI supply chain.

How the $950 billion breaks down

According to figures released by South Korea's government, the total combines roughly $200 billion tied to a memorandum of understanding between Samsung Electronics and Broadcom, approximately $500 billion connected to SK Group's collaboration with Nvidia, and an additional $250 billion representing the government's own estimate of SK's broader collaborations with other major technology firms including Microsoft, Anthropic and Amazon Web Services. Hyundai Motor Group separately announced plans to collaborate with Nvidia, Waymo and Google DeepMind in the physical AI sector, though it did not disclose specific dollar figures tied to that cooperation.

The Samsung-Broadcom agreement covers memory, foundry and advanced packaging collaboration through 2030, with Samsung set to supply high-bandwidth memory for Broadcom's next-generation AI accelerators while also producing Broadcom's communication semiconductors using sub-2-nanometer manufacturing processes. A Samsung Electronics official described the agreement as comprehensive in scope but declined to specify how the $200 billion figure splits between memory supply and foundry or packaging orders, noting the estimate reflects the companies' projected activity over five years rather than a confirmed order.

The larger SK Group figure centers on a letter of intent between SK Telecom and Nvidia to build an AI data center, or "AI Factory," with up to 2 gigawatts of capacity beginning in 2027, alongside a long-term agreement for SK Hynix to supply next-generation AI memory, including high-bandwidth memory, to Nvidia.

Why the numbers have drawn skepticism

Despite the scale of the announcement, industry observers and business sources have raised questions about how the figures were calculated. Notably, the disclosed totals combine revenue Korean companies expect to earn selling semiconductors to U.S. firms with the money those same Korean companies plan to spend purchasing American-made graphics processing units, a structure some in the industry say inflates the headline number. One source from the business community, speaking about SK's dealings with Nvidia specifically, characterized the practice of combining outbound sales figures with inbound purchases as reflective of a broader pattern of exaggeration currently common across the AI industry.

Beyond the revenue-and-expenditure blending, most of the individual company-level breakdowns behind the $950 billion figure have not been disclosed. Aside from the specific numbers tied to Broadcom and Nvidia, the government has not detailed how much of the total stems from any other individual company relationship, including the roughly $250 billion attributed broadly to SK's collaborations with Microsoft, Anthropic and Amazon Web Services. SK has said the overall scale is not significantly overstated but has not released company-by-company figures to support that claim.

Industry context: some deals seen as inevitable

Some industry insiders have suggested that, given how few global suppliers exist for advanced memory chips, much of the projected business between major U.S. technology firms and South Korea's two dominant memory producers was effectively predetermined regardless of Friday's announcement. An SK official acknowledged that the company's collaborations with Nvidia and other partners on semiconductors and data centers have been ongoing for some time, while arguing that publicly disclosing the scale of those relationships for the first time still carries meaningful value in demonstrating actual demand for South Korean semiconductors.

SK's chairman defends the announcement

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won pushed back directly against suggestions that the figures were overstated, framing the announcement as conservative relative to the company's actual scope of activity. "The AI plan grows bigger the more we touch it," Chey said, adding that he suspects the announced figures may understate the true scale of the projects already underway. He emphasized that the disclosures reflected work grounded in realistic planning rather than speculative announcements.

Part of a broader state-backed AI push

Friday's announcement builds on an already ambitious state-driven AI strategy from President Lee's government. Last month, Lee unveiled three large state-backed initiatives centered on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix aimed at building semiconductor production clusters, physical AI ecosystems and AI data centers, representing more than $576 billion in investment on their own. Lee is also scheduled to attend a separate Silicon Valley meeting involving South Korea's National Pension Service, the world's third-largest pension fund, and U.S. venture capital firms, part of a broader effort to attract international investment into South Korean startups.

With most of the underlying company-specific figures still undisclosed, and questions lingering over how much of the $950 billion reflects genuinely new business versus previously expected transactions between a small number of global chip suppliers and buyers, further clarity is likely to depend on future corporate disclosures from Samsung, SK Hynix and their U.S. partners as the various memorandums of understanding and letters of intent move toward finalized contracts in the years ahead.