Nvidia and SK Group put a $500bn umbrella over chips, memory and a 2GW AI campus, but the first useful number is still missing: how much capacity is actually under contract

Nvidia and SK Group announced a $500bn AI partnership covering memory, systems and a Korean AI campus. The disclosed plan includes long-term HBM4 supply and a 2GW South Korean datacentre built around Vera Rubin, with initial service targeted for 2027, but no binding first-phase order, named site or power schedule. The edition separates aggregate ambition from contracted capacity, then follows the constraint through a 3.1GW synchronized datacentre disconnection, Google's Pixel 11 price increase during the memory shortage, Shopify's 93% reduction in theme code, and the argument that open-weight AI is approaching its Kubernetes layer.