As Nvidia's annual developer conference GTC 2026, which captured the global tech industry's attention, wrapped up on the 19th local time, the digital twin platform Omniverse drew as much interest as next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Core affiliates of Korea's four major groups—Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG—have already finished applying it to manufacturing sites.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which supply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to Nvidia, shared the results they achieved by adopting Omniverse and their future plans during this year's GTC presentations. Hyundai Motor Group, which released plans to co-develop next-generation Autonomous Driving solutions with Nvidia, also formalized its plan to adopt Omniverse last year. LG Electronics, introduced on the GTC 2026 keynote stage by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as a robotics partner, is currently using Omniverse to build a Smart Factory.
Omniverse is a product that uses digital twin technology to precisely reproduce real spaces in virtual form. It can create "digital twins" from products on the small end to factories and even entire cities. When reality is brought into digital form, analysis through AI and big data becomes easier. Changing production equipment layouts or logistics flows in the real world costs a lot of expense, but these constraints disappear in virtual space. It means you can run simulations as much as you want. It is often used to boost product performance or find ways to improve factory operation efficiency. Nvidia's AI chips are used for the computing needed in this process.
◇ Samsung Electronics and SK hynix: "Achieve 'autonomous factories' by 2030 with Nvidia technology"
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix gave back-to-back presentations on the second day of GTC 2026. Song Yong-ho, vice president and head of the AI Center in Samsung Electronics' DS (semiconductor) institutional sector, gave a presentation on "Semiconductor manufacturing innovation using Agentic AI," while Do Seung-yong, vice president and head of the digital transformation (DT) institutional sector at SK hynix, joined a panel on "Designing the future of manufacturing." While there are some differences in the details, both cited Omniverse as a key theme. Both companies said they plan to make semiconductor manufacturing sites autonomous by 2030 through Omniverse. The aim is not simple process automation, but to create factories where AI understands the site and executes optimal decisions on its own to maximize semiconductor manufacturing efficiency.
Song shared a case in which Omniverse was used to implement Pyeongtaek Plant 1, the world's largest memory semiconductor production base, in virtual space, saying, "Preemptive responses such as process optimization and risk prediction have become possible." He also unveiled for the first time a video showing what results can be achieved by introducing a Humanoid Robot to a semiconductor production plant.
Do noted that a surge in demand for memory semiconductors due to the expansion of AI services requires "manufacturing innovation" to expand production capacity. To that end, SK hynix said it has adopted Omniverse to conduct simulations, AI training, and operational optimization without halting production, and is pre-validating production flows, material movements, and layouts.
A semiconductor industry official said, "Samsung Electronics and SK hynix emphasized at GTC 2026 that they are not only memory suppliers but also customers using Nvidia's digital twin," adding, "They conveyed the message that they are 'partners' with Nvidia in autonomizing semiconductor manufacturing processes."
◇ Expansion of "Omniverse adoption" timed with Jensen Huang's visit to Korea
What Samsung Electronics and SK hynix disclosed at GTC is closer to an "interim results announcement" than a new collaboration. Samsung Electronics first revealed its adoption of Nvidia's Omniverse in March 2024. The Omniverse adoption plan unveiled at GTC 2024 was further detailed when CEO Huang visited Korea in October last year to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. At the time, Samsung Electronics said it would use 50,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to build a digital twin manufacturing system that ties together memory, logic, foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing), and packaging. The Pyeongtaek Plant 1 case presented at this event indicates that this strategy is being realized step by step.
SK hynix also announced, timed to Huang's visit to Korea, a plan to use 2,000 units of Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs to convert its Icheon campus into a digital twin environment. SK hynix plans to sequentially expand this to the Yongin semiconductor cluster as well. The first-phase fab of the Yongin semiconductor cluster is being built in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu, Yongin, at a height equivalent to a 50-story apartment building, and SK hynix plans to invest about 31 trillion won there by the end of December 2030. SK hynix's ambition is to prepare an environment close to an "autonomous process" from the initial operation.
Hyundai Motor Group did not separately announce results related to Omniverse at GTC 2026. However, it released a strategic partnership with Nvidia in Jan. 2025, formally announcing the adoption of Omniverse. Like Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group further detailed this plan last October by introducing 50,000 Blackwell GPUs. At the time, Hyundai Motor Group said, "We will enable testing and verification of autonomous vehicle software across limitless driving scenarios."
LG Electronics, which is developing a Humanoid Robot using Nvidia's inference AI model, is also actively using Omniverse. LG Electronics said last October that it is combining the manufacturing and production data it has accumulated over 60 years with Omniverse. It is creating a virtual space that encompasses down to the level of factory equipment units to streamline logistics operations and maintenance.
Nvidia is shifting its business position from a simple AI chip supplier to a "solution provider." On last month's earnings conference call, CEO Huang said, "I want to put as many ecosystems as possible on top of Nvidia." The idea is to deliver high-performance solutions powered by the most efficient AI chips to customers and drive results.
Omniverse is considered a key product for realizing this strategy at Nvidia. In particular, as AI that operated in digital space like chatbots evolves into "physical AI," where it is embedded in devices and products to perceive the real world and make its own judgments, its importance is seen as having grown further. Nvidia has continued to advance Omniverse since its open beta release in Oct. 2020. In Jan. last year, it expanded service areas to robots, Autonomous Driving, and vision AI, and more recently, it has been improving it to "do more in digital space" by working with companies that have digital twin technology, such as Siemens and Dassault Systèmes.