Ryu Je-myung, South Korea's second vice minister of science and ICT, said on Tuesday that Nvidia told him during a visit to its headquarters after attending CES 2026 that it would prioritise supply of its next-generation Vera Rubin GPU series to South Korea.

Ryu disclosed this in a Facebook post describing his CES 2026 visit and trips to Nvidia and other sites.

He wrote that Madison Huang, described as Jensen Huang's daughter, personally guided him around the headquarters and repeatedly stressed the importance of its partnership with South Korea. He added that Nvidia pledged early supply of Blackwell (GB300) and prioritised supply to South Korea of its next-generation Vera Rubin GPU, scheduled for mass production in 2027.

Ryu added that being able to use the latest GPUs first carries major significance in the competition among AI models.

Ryu wrote that at CES 2026 the broad adoption of AI was a key theme running through everything. He added that physical AI was the word he heard most often, and that competition over physical AI foundation models, related semiconductor competition and technology development in areas such as autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots were advancing rapidly.

He wrote that Amazon's autonomous vehicle Zoox, which he test-rode in Las Vegas, was a Level 4 self-driving car with no steering wheel or driver's seat. He added that after visiting Nvidia headquarters, he rode Google's Waymo and felt it drove better than a human on real roads.

Ryu added that he was saddened to hear that Hyundai Motor was conducting test operations in the United States due to South Korean regulations. He wrote that he felt an urgent concern that South Korea could fall behind or be eliminated in the era of autonomous vehicles if this continues.

[Yonhap News Agency]