South Korea, home to major memory chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, has said it aims to join the US and China as one of the top three artificial intelligence powers.
“We’re building AI infrastructure that the Republic of Korea can control, audit and evolve on its own terms,” Reflection AI’s CEO and co-founder Misha Laskin said.
Reflection AI, founded in 2024, is part of a collaboration led by Nvidia to advance frontier-level AI.
Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia Research at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, told AFP that “from Washington’s perspective, deals like this help strengthen partner ecosystems and reduce reliance on China”.
But most Asian governments are not looking to be drawn into that binary, she said.
“In practice, that means you’ll see countries quietly balancing US partnerships on their terms, while making strategic concessions to China to keep relationships stable.”
Bhattacharya added that full AI self-sufficiency was “not a realistic goal for most Asian countries in the near term”.
“What I’m seeing instead is a more pragmatic objective of reducing vulnerability in an ecosystem heavily shaped by US and Chinese dominance in models, chips, and talent.”
