SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) – South Korea expects contracted deliveries of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to proceed uninterrupted despite a controversy surrounding the chipmaker’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, Seoul’s vice science minister said on Monday. Deputy Science and ICT Minister Ryu Jemyung told a parliamentary budget committee that 10,000 GPUs funded from a supplementary budget for 2025 had already arrived and were in use. The GPUs planned for 2026 were under contract and were expected to enter service this year, he said. “We expect the production and delivery schedule for the contracted volumes to proceed without interruptions,” Ryu said, adding that the ministry was closely monitoring developments and discussing pricing and schedules with Nvidia Korea. Nvidia’s board of directors said on Sunday it had opened an independent investigation after reports that CEO Jensen Huang had been the target of a Chinese intelligence effort through his relationship with businesswoman Alice Huang. The board said it had no reason to believe that US 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 artificial intelligence startup Rebellions said its planned visit to its headquarters and a partner dinner were canceled due to unavoidable internal circumstances at Nvidia. Kakao Mobility also canceled a photo shoot and Q&A event with her, but said “a business deal with Nvidia would continue and senior director Gaurav Agarwal would attend instead.” Nvidia AI Day Seoul, a two-day event expected to draw about 2,000 participants to discuss physical AI, agency AI and infrastructure, was “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 YangEditing by Ed Davies)
