Jensen Huang's 'Four Gifts' ... "Reaffirming South Korea as a Core Pillar of the AI Ecosystem" [NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's Visit to Korea]

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, used his friendly, public-facing image in South Korea to pursue a strategy of expanding the company's business beyond Artificial Intelligence (AI) semiconductors into Physical AI such as robots, as well as manufacturing and the content industry as a whole. Over the three-day visit, Huang focused on some of the country's most down-to-earth and popular venues, including samgyeopsal restaurants, fried chicken shops, and naengmyeon restaurants. He held public meetings with Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group; Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group; and Lee Hae-jin, chairman of Naver. He also made appearances at a professional baseball ceremonial first pitch, on the popular variety show You Quiz on the Block, and at a PC bang, broadening his contact with the Korean public. Analysts say he was strengthening his presence as a star CEO leading the AI era while seeking to expand the influence of the Nvidia Empire in South Korea, following the United States and Taiwan.
■ South Korea emerges as a key pillar of NVIDIA's AI ecosystem
According to industry sources on the 7th, Huang said on the 5th, the first day of his visit, that he had brought "four new businesses as a big gift to South Korea," referring to the next-generation AI accelerator Vera Rubin, the Vera CPU, the personal AI supercomputer NVIDIA DGX Spark, and the AI computer for robots, NVIDIA Jetson Thor. During the visit, he also fleshed out plans to establish a Research and Development Center (R&D Center) in South Korea. He added that "South Korea is the best place for R&D investment because it has strong expertise in AI and robotics and is a global manufacturing hub."
South Korea is in fact one of the world's most competitive manufacturing countries. It is home to world-class industries in semiconductors, automobiles, home appliances, mobile phones, IT, and shipbuilding. Its fast response to advanced technologies such as AI has led some to say it is an ideal partner for building NVIDIA's AI ecosystem.
At present, SK Group supplies High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a key component in NVIDIA AI accelerators, and is expected to become a major customer for future NVIDIA AI accelerators. Naver has AI platforms and Digital Twin technology. Hyundai Motor Group is expanding its Physical AI businesses, including autonomous driving and robotics, while LG Group and Doosan Group are also focusing on robotics and smart manufacturing. These companies are seen as leading candidates to buy NVIDIA's new Vera Rubin AI accelerator and robotics and autonomous driving systems.
A senior business source said Huang's approach was "a business method on a different level." The source added that it was "a broad public-business strategy aimed at emphasizing NVIDIA's influence in future advanced industries such as AI, which are directly tied to national economic security, and at making South Korea, with its strengths in manufacturing, a key partner."
■ NVIDIA's roots in gaming cooperation as well
During the visit, Huang also met with officials from South Korea's gaming industry one after another. He highlighted his special relationship with the Korean gaming sector by visiting a PC bang, a symbol of the gaming industry that helped lay the foundation for NVIDIA's growth today.
That afternoon, Huang visited a PC bang near Sinnonhyeon Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where he met Chang Byung-gyu, chairman of KRAFTON, Inc., and players of PUBG: Battlegrounds. After the event, Chang told reporters that it was "a time to confirm, by meeting users at a PC bang, that NVIDIA's roots are in gaming."
KRAFTON, Inc. has long worked with NVIDIA to develop and integrate AI features into games. Their cooperation is also extending into Physical AI. In April last year, senior executives from KRAFTON, Inc. visited NVIDIA's headquarters in California and discussed the direction of next-generation technology cooperation, including robotics, with Huang. Earlier this year, the company established a U.S. subsidiary specializing in Physical AI called Ludo Robotics.
Huang then moved to another nearby PC bang and attended a user event for Aion 2 with Kim Taek-jin, chief executive of NCSoft, and other senior executives. He also gave away a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) with his signature to a fan through a raffle. Huang and Kim made a surprise appearance on a live online broadcast, where they discussed the future direction of the gaming industry and AI technology.
soup@fnnews.com Im Su-bin, Ju Won-gyu, Jo Eun-hyo Reporter