NVIDIA and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have announced the launch of a joint AI research laboratory at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI in Seoul. The lab will focus on advancing agentic AI for South Korea.

The collaboration will bring together NVIDIA’s full-stack AI expertise, NVIDIA Nemotron open models, and computing from NVIDIA AI Cloud partners with research talent at KAIST. KAIST is described as one of Asia’s premier research universities.

“Korea is home to leading AI researchers and is one of the world’s most advanced technology ecosystems,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist and senior vice president of research at NVIDIA. “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.”

Research, Infrastructure and Talent

“AI research is entering a new era, one that requires frontier talent, large-scale infrastructure, and deep collaboration across academia and industry,” said Hyunwoo Kim, incoming faculty member at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, who will serve as head of the joint NVIDIA-KAIST lab upon joining KAIST. “Together, NVIDIA and KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI will pursue ambitious work that helps Korea attract and retain top AI scientists while building lasting ties with NVIDIA’s global research organization.”

The lab will be established at the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI in Seoul. KAIST, headquartered in Daejeon, has a strong focus on public research spanning engineering, AI, semiconductor technology, robotics, and digital humanities.

The joint lab plans to fund at least 10 KAIST researchers annually and provide each with internship opportunities at NVIDIA. NVIDIA also plans to hire exceptional Korean researchers for full-time positions.

Why It Matters

The collaboration is valued at $300 million and is expected to include $50 million in annual compute contributions over an initial five-year period. Compute infrastructure from local NVIDIA Cloud Partners will provide researchers with direct access to NVIDIA AI infrastructure.

Among the lab’s priorities will be developing models optimized for the Korean language and Korea-specific use cases. NVIDIA Nemotron open models will be used to advance the country’s AI capabilities and support a pipeline from academic discovery to enterprise and national AI deployments.