Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang spent part of his South Korea visit in a casual late-evening gathering with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and senior executives, underscoring the increasingly close ties between the U.S. chipmaker and South Korea’s memory and AI ecosystem.
The meeting took place in Seoul’s Gangnam district on the evening of June 7, local time, and quickly drew crowds of onlookers as Huang arrived in a black sedan accompanied by his wife, Lori Huang. In a departure from his trademark black leather jacket, Huang wore a Doosan Bears baseball jersey—the same outfit he had worn earlier in the day during a ceremonial first pitch at a Korean baseball game.
The informal setting—fried chicken, draft beer and casual seating—gave the encounter the atmosphere of a public fan event as customers and passersby gathered outside the restaurant, many filming and requesting autographs.
About 10 minutes after Huang arrived, Chey entered the restaurant and greeted him with a high-five before the two shared a toast with draft beer alongside SK executives and Nvidia representatives.
The gathering echoed previous informal meetings between Huang and South Korean business leaders, but this session was more narrowly focused on SK Group executives and Nvidia personnel, reflecting the deepening commercial importance of their relationship in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The tone of the evening shifted between casual conversation and symbolic references to one of the most critical components in AI computing: high-bandwidth memory, or HBM.
As SK executives distributed snack chips themed around HBM technology to guests outside the venue, Huang joked, “HBM! I want more HBM!” The comment, delivered in a lighthearted moment, drew laughter but also underscored the surging global demand for advanced memory chips used in AI accelerators.
SK Hynix has become a key supplier of HBM for Nvidia, benefiting from explosive demand driven by large-scale artificial intelligence training and inference workloads.
Executives at the gathering downplayed any formal business negotiations during the dinner. Kwak Noh-jung said the discussions centered on informal conversation rather than structured dealmaking, while other participants described the event as a social occasion focused on relationship-building.
Chey noted that such meetings have become routine when Huang visits South Korea, emphasizing the informal nature of their interaction. When asked about earlier meetings, Chey joked that it was Huang who might have felt more disappointed about missing past gatherings.
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, the meeting highlighted the strategic interdependence between Nvidia and South Korea’s semiconductor industry at a time when demand for AI infrastructure continues to accelerate globally.
The two sides were expected to meet again on June 8, local time, at SK Group headquarters in Seoul. Huang was also scheduled to attend a broader Korea AI Ecosystem reception later that evening, bringing together domestic startups and industry partners as Nvidia continues expanding its footprint in the region’s fast-growing AI sector.
