Nvidia has announced new South Korean partnerships with SK Hynix, Naver, SK Telecom, Doosan Group, LG Group, and Hyundai Motor Group. The agreements came during CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to South Korea, where he met several corporate leaders.

• Nvidia announced South Korean AI partnerships with SK Hynix, Naver, SK Telecom, Doosan, LG, and Hyundai.
• SK Hynix signed a multi-year memory partnership to support Nvidia’s global AI data center plans.
• South Korea’s Kospi fell 8.3%, while Samsung and SK Hynix shares dropped after a strong tech rally.

The companies did not disclose the financial value of the deals. Nvidia said the partnerships cover memory chips, AI data centers, robotics, mobility, and industrial AI systems.

SK Hynix deepens Nvidia memory partnership

According to SK Group, SK Hynix signed a multi-year technology partnership with Nvidia. The deal focuses on advanced memory products for global AI data centers. SK Hynix and Nvidia said the agreement will help supply meet Nvidia’s expansion plans. Nvidia has expanded its work across robotics, personal computers, and AI supercomputers. Memory chip producers have faced rising demand from AI infrastructure projects.

Huang said SK Hynix remains Nvidia’s largest memory partner. “SK Hynix has been Nvidia’s largest memory partner,” Huang said after meeting SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. He added that SK Hynix would continue holding that role. Huang also said Nvidia already buys billions of dollars in products from the company each year. He said those purchases would grow substantially.

Huang said SK Hynix’s plan to double memory wafer capacity by 2030 would not meet AI demand. He said the agreement would run for more than two years, with extension options. SK Hynix competes with Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology in memory chips. NH Investment & Securities analyst Ryu Young-ho said the deal showed memory chips becoming more customer-specific. The partnership came as AI data centers need more high-bandwidth memory.

Nvidia adds AI data center partners

SK Telecom said it will build a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in South Korea using Nvidia technology. The company expects its first AI data center under the plan to come online in 2027. Nvidia said Naver and Doosan will also use its technology for AI data centers. Doosan develops robots and makes materials used in Nvidia’s Blackwell chips. The company expects its energy solution to support Nvidia data center platforms.

Nvidia is also working with LG Group on electronics, mechanical systems, and humanoid robot AI. Huang said the companies discussed future data center architecture with LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. The work includes cooling, power delivery, and data center design. After meeting Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, Huang said Nvidia would deepen AI collaboration. The areas include autonomous mobility, robotics, and AI-powered manufacturing.

Huang also referred to Hyundai’s planned AI data center in Saemangeum as an “AI Valley.” He said he was “very happy to build Nvidia in Saemangeum.” South Korea’s tech ministry separately said it plans to secure 9,704 GPUs for a state AI project. The 2026 project is worth 2.08 trillion won. The planned order includes 2,016 Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs.

South Korea chip stocks fall after rally

South Korea remains a major manufacturing base for chips, electronics, cars, and ships. SK Hynix and Samsung are the world’s two largest memory chip makers. The country’s Kospi index had doubled in six months before Monday’s decline. AI demand had supported gains in several major South Korean technology stocks. However, global tech shares dropped after strong U.S. jobs data raised rate-hike expectations.

The Kospi closed 8.3% lower on Monday. Samsung shares fell 10.2%, while SK Hynix shares dropped 7.7%. Huang dismissed concerns when asked about the chip stock selloff. “Everybody should be very excited,” Huang said. He added that people could now buy stock at a cheaper price.

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Jun Young-hyun also met Huang during the visit. Jun said they discussed cooperation on next-generation foundry chips. He said talks covered autonomous driving chips, HBM5 memory, and Groq’s AI LP30 chips. Samsung said those Groq chips are scheduled for shipment in the second half of this year. The discussions added another chip-related item to Huang’s South Korea schedule.

MetaMask launched a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that allows artificial intelligence agents to transact across decentralized finance protocols within user-defined spending and security controls.

Users can connect the Agent Wallet to AI agent frameworks and authorize software agents to operate within protocol allowlists. The wallet is compatible with frameworks including OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, OpenClaw and Hermes, according to MetaMask.

MetaMask said transactions initiated by AI agents are screened through transaction simulation, threat detection and MEV protection systems before execution. Transactions flagged as malicious or outside a user’s predefined rules require manual approval.

Source: MetaMask

The wallet supports token swaps, perpetual futures trading, prediction markets and liquidity provision across Ethereum-compatible networks and Hyperliquid. MetaMask said transactions deemed safe by its security systems are covered by up to $10,000 in loss protection.

The product is currently available to a limited group of users through an early access program, with broader availability planned later this summer.

Related: MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay leaves Consensys after 10 years

Industry interest grows in AI-powered transactions

Cryptocurrency companies are rushing to build infrastructure that allows AI agents to manage digital assets and make payments autonomously.

In February, Coinbase introduced Agentic Wallets, which allow AI agents to spend, earn and trade cryptos while interacting autonomously with onchain applications.

In May, Fireblocks launched Agentic Payments Suite, a platform designed to help AI agents send and receive stablecoin payments through Coinbase’s x402 protocol.

Cumulative agentic transfer volumes on Base. Source: Chainalysis

AI-driven payment activity appears to be gaining traction quickly. A June 3 Chainalysis report found that wallets using Coinbase’s x402 agent payment protocol generated more than 100 million transactions on Base within roughly nine months of launch.

The push extends beyond the crypto industry. In April, Visa launched Intelligent Commerce Connect, a platform that allows artificial intelligence agents to browse, select and pay for goods on behalf of consumers.

The growing interest has prompted bullish forecasts from crypto executives. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said billions of AI agents could be transacting with cryptocurrencies and stablecoins within three to five years. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that crypto will become the native payment rail for autonomous software.

Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) remain one of the few bright spots in the cryptocurrency industry, even as macroeconomic headwinds and policy uncertainty weigh on markets in 2026, according to Binance Research.

In its latest Monthly Market Insights report, Binance Research said the market for active tokenized RWAs surged 589% from early 2025 to June 2026. Bonds and money market funds led the sector in dollar terms, growing by 83% and adding $6.5 billion in value.

Tokenized stocks, however, recorded the fastest growth, with their market value jumping 422%.

Much of that momentum was driven by platforms such as Ondo Global Markets, which offers tokenized stocks and ETFs and surpassed $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) within eight months of launch.

Tokenized precious metals also continued to attract investors, adding $1.5 billion in value, or 39%, during the period. Most of those gains came in January and February as geopolitical uncertainty fueled demand for safe-haven assets, pushing tokenized gold above $6 billion before momentum cooled and underlying gold prices retraced.

The market for tokenized RWAs is becoming more diversified.
Source: Binance Research

“2026 marks RWA tokenization’s maturation from a Treasury-dominated narrative into a diversified yield ecosystem,” Binance said.

The move came as Bitcoin and the broader crypto market fell sharply in early June amid rising expectations of higher interest rates, uncertainty surrounding the CLARITY market structure bill in the US and shifting sentiment following Strategy’s sale of 32 Bitcoin.

Related: SEC postpones plan allowing ‘innovation exemption’ for tokenized stocks: Report

Tokenized assets target retail, institutional investors 

The launch of tokenized SpaceX shares has brought fresh attention to the tokenization sector. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Kraken now offers access to a tokenized equivalent of the private company’s stock through the xStocks tokenized equities platform.

XStocks gained traction quickly, with cumulative trading volume exceeding $25 billion within about eight months of launch.

Institutional adoption is also accelerating across other asset classes. In real estate, Apex Group has begun providing fund services using Goldman Sachs’ Digital Asset Platform, underscoring growing demand for blockchain-based settlement and administration.

At the same time, industry efforts are extending beyond tokenized investment products and into core financial infrastructure. Banks are increasingly exploring tokenized deposit networks to modernize payments and compete with the rapid growth of stablecoins.

Source: Brian Armstrong

According to The Wall Street Journal, The Clearing House — a bank-owned payments operator backed by JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, BNY and Wells Fargo — plans to launch a tokenized deposit network next year, marking another step toward integrating tokenization into the traditional banking system.

Related: Binance adds US stock trading in push beyond crypto

Applied Digital has signed a 15-year lease with a U.S.-based hyperscaler for its Delta Forge 2 campus. The company said the agreement could generate about $5.2 billion in revenue during the base term.

Applied Digital shares rose 8.7% in extended trading after the announcement. The deal adds 210 megawatts of contracted AI computing capacity to the company’s portfolio.

Delta Forge 2 secures hyperscaler lease

According to Applied Digital, the new lease covers capacity at its Delta Forge 2 AI Factory campus. The company did not name the customer in its Monday announcement. However, it said the agreement represents its third long-term lease with the same investment-grade hyperscaler. The deal uses a take-or-pay structure, which supports contracted revenue over the lease period. Applied Digital said the customer is based in the United States.

The company said the 15-year base term could produce about $5.2 billion in revenue. If the customer exercises all renewal options, total revenue could reach about $12.7 billion over 30 years. Applied Digital also said about 70% of its contracted revenue now comes from U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscalers. The latest contract expands its customer-backed data center pipeline. The company linked the lease to rising demand for AI infrastructure.

AI workloads drive data center demand

Large technology companies continue raising spending on data centers for artificial intelligence systems. These facilities require power, computing capacity, and infrastructure built for heavy workloads. Applied Digital said Delta Forge 2 will support high-power density computing needs. The campus will use waterless cooling technology. Initial operations at the site are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2028.

The Delta Forge 2 agreement comes as AI developers seek more specialized facilities. Applied Digital’s campus design focuses on workloads that need large energy and cooling capacity. The company said its infrastructure supports advanced computing requirements. Hyperscalers have increased long-term leasing activity as AI models require more resources. Applied Digital did not disclose technical details about the customer’s planned workloads.

The contracted portfolio reaches five campuses

Applied Digital said its contracted portfolio now spans five campuses. Those sites represent 1.4 gigawatts of critical IT load. The company also reported about 2.15 gigawatts of grid-connected utility power across the portfolio. Its contracted base-term lease revenue has increased to about $36 billion. If all renewal options move forward, the figure could rise to roughly $86 billion.The company said the new lease strengthens its contracted revenue base.

Applied Digital also said hyperscaler-backed agreements now make up most of its contracted revenue. The latest deal adds another long-term commitment to its data center platform. Shares rose after the market closed following the announcement. The company expects Delta Forge 2 operations to start in early 2028.

Memecoin issuance platform Pump.fun’s new bounty product has produced its first controversy.

A user posting as Arivu on X said he completed a Pump.fun GO bounty last week that asked someone to tattoo the ticker “$boutywork” on their forehead and provide video proof. The task appeared to reference a token called $Bountywork, but the bounty description itself used the misspelled version “$boutywork.”

Arivu said he followed the task exactly.

“Guys I have followed everything exactly what the name mentioned in the line,” he wrote on X, adding that it was not his mistake because he tattooed the exact name mentioned by the bounty creator. “Please i gave my life,” he wrote.

The typo then became the market.

A Solana token using the ticker BOUTYWORK began trading on PumpSwap, rising to an over $600,000 market cap shortly after going live. It grabbed over $3.5 million in volume in 24 hours, 2,630 holders and roughly $43,000 of liquidity.

Arivu later posted that he had received $20,000, but from the trading fee of a token someone had launched. He shared the token address and thanked users, saying they had changed his life.

‘Pay anyone to do anything’

Pump.fun GO, announced last week, that it will let users create and complete bounties for almost any task. The company pitched it as a way to “pay anyone to do anything,” a line that sounds like internet fun (and most of the bounties are light-hearted dares) until the task becomes more exploitive, such as permanent body modifications.

The backlash on the new platform came quickly.

One X user claimed to have spoken with the tattoo shop and alleged that the person who got the tattoo may have been exploited by someone else trying to profit from the token’s price rally. A phone call to the tattoo shop made by CoinDesk went unanswered twice.

Nikita Bier, the widely-followed head of product at X, was more blunt:

“It’s sad that all the rich people left crypto and it’s now the entire industry is just teenagers in America forcing poor people to do shameful things.”

The tattoo was not the only task pushing Pump.fun GO beyond normal memecoin theater.

Other open bounties reviewed by CoinDesk showed how widespread the dares are. Some were silly internet dares, such as one that asked users to beat a watermelon-eating challenge in under 60 seconds for a reward pool of about $93.

Another offered about $663 for people to go to Los Angeles’ Skid Row, a 50-block neighborhood that contains one of the largest homeless populations known for its drug markets and extreme poverty, and interview two homeless people on camera about who they voted for.

But some started to turn dangerous.

One bounty asked people to drink a whole bottle of alcohol while promoting a token, with videos showing multiple submissions of users appearing to chug bottles in about a minute.

Another offered about $266 for someone to shave their head while screaming “Jobcoin.”

That is where the exploitative nature of memecoin frenzy shows up.

Pump.fun GO turns attention into a bounty, the bounty into content, and the content into a token trade. The person doing the stunt may get a small payout. The creator can launch a coin around it and capture far more if the market catches on.

The more attention something gets, the more profit it could potentially generate.

To be clear, Pump.fun has no role in the types of streams users choose to create, and it has an active moderation team that takes down dark or malicious content. Pump has been moderating platform activity since it started.

CoinDesk has reached out to Pump.fun for comments.

However, this isn’t the first time Pump.fun has found itself embroiled in controversial social experiments.

Previously, the platform had live streaming videos ranging from extreme dark humor to dark behavior, all in an effort to pump their tokens to a few million dollars in market capitalization.

At the time when some of these streams went live, several videos that emerged, including suicidal streams, death threats and a man locked up in his toilet continuously, were disturbing, to say the least.

And that makes for the uncomfortable part of this story.

On one side, this is the wild and wacky side of crypto internet: a typo, a bounty, a Solana token, a viral photo and a chart that goes vertical before most people understand what happened.

On the other hand, when crypto is reeling from a bear market and trying to be taken seriously by the masses, such stunts show how quickly memecoin incentives can hold back crypto’s reputation as a serious contender for everyday financial rails.

Key Takeaways

• Intel shares rallied approximately 11% on Monday, topping S&P 500 performers following a 13.5% decline the previous week
• Reports suggest Google could place an order for 3 million AI chips with Intel for delivery in 2028
• Nvidia and Tesla are reportedly considering Intel as a potential chip manufacturing partner
• Morgan Stanley notes robust server CPU demand and expects Intel to beat near-term estimates
• Intel shares have climbed 422% over the trailing twelve months; analyst consensus remains Hold with $98.15 average target

Intel shares staged a dramatic recovery Monday, surging approximately 11% to near $110 after shedding 13.5% the prior week during a session that wiped out $1 trillion from semiconductor valuations.

Intel Corporation, INTC

The rally positioned Intel atop the S&P 500 gainers list for the trading day. The benchmark index advanced 0.8%, with the Nasdaq climbing 1.4%. Intel’s performance significantly outpaced both.

What sparked the move? The Information published a report suggesting Alphabet’s Google might have contracted Intel to produce 3 million tensor processing units — specialized TPU AI chips — by 2028. The alleged order remains unverified, with Google and Nvidia offering no comment. Intel similarly declined to address the speculation.

Investors bought in anyway.

The speculation extended beyond Google. Street Insider indicated that Nvidia could potentially engage Intel as a contract manufacturer for a new processor design that integrates four Nvidia GPUs into one package. Tesla also surfaced in reports as possibly partnering with Intel or licensing its upcoming 14A manufacturing technology for proprietary chips at a planned facility called Terafab.

Three heavyweight prospects. None confirmed. All driving momentum.

Strong Server CPU Trends Provide Foundation

Setting aside unverified reports, fundamental factors also support a bullish case. Morgan Stanley’s Joseph Moore noted on June 1 that Intel maintains healthy server CPU momentum.

Moore emphasized that the server roadmap — rather than foundry contracts — represents the core Intel investment thesis. He highlighted Intel’s “clear ability to beat-and-raise near term given server CPU shortages.”

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reinforced this narrative during Computex in Taiwan last week, revealing that multiple CEOs have reached out over recent weeks requesting additional CPUs to satisfy demand.

Intel additionally announced a collaboration with Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn last week focused on AI infrastructure development, further expanding its manufacturing strategy.

Rally Details and Market Context

The semiconductor sector experienced broad gains Monday. Broadcom advanced 2.7%, AMD climbed 4%, and Nvidia increased 1.6% following Friday’s worst single-session decline for the PHLX Semiconductor Index since 2020.

Yet Intel’s advance was exceptional. The stock has jumped 190% in 2026 year-to-date and has skyrocketed 422% over the past year.

Despite this impressive performance, Wall Street remains cautious. Among 51 firms monitored by FactSet, the consensus rating stands at Hold, with an average price objective of $98.15 — substantially below current trading levels.

Valuation concerns persist. Intel operates at a loss currently and trades at over 120 times forward earnings estimates for next year.

Intel’s market capitalization now stands at roughly $498 billion. Monday’s session saw the stock fluctuate between $106.66 and $112.36, with average daily turnover around 122.9 million shares — volume that underscores intense investor attention.