Visit set for June 8, about two months after his eldest daughter toured the same robotics lab in April
By Ahn Hyo-jung, The Herald Business
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia and a driving force in the AI semiconductor market, will visit Seoul National University's AI Institute and Robotics Research Institute during his current trip to South Korea. Notably, Huang himself proposed the visit, telling the university he wanted to meet directly with SNU students — not merely tour the research facilities.
Huang arrives in South Korea on Thursday evening and is scheduled to visit the SNU AI Institute and Robotics Research Institute on June 8. The two sides are currently working out the details of the itinerary, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Senior faculty from both institutes will be present, and demonstrations of each lab's core research areas are planned.
Industry observers are focused on Huang's proposal to meet in person with South Korea's next-generation AI and robotics talent. As global competition for AI supremacy intensifies, attention is on what vision and message he will bring to the country's young researchers. "The format of the meeting is currently being discussed with Nvidia," an SNU official said.
The visit comes about two months after Madison Huang — Huang's eldest daughter and Nvidia's head of robotics marketing — toured SNU's Robotics Research Institute in April. During that visit, she observed robot demonstrations and met with researchers.
With Huang now following his senior executive to SNU in person, observers are watching whether Nvidia's collaboration with South Korean academia will move into full gear in the field of physical AI — the company's flagship next-generation business — building on partnerships already established with Korean industry.
Nvidia has been rapidly expanding its physical AI ecosystem, recently unveiling a series of platforms including Omniverse, a robot simulation platform; Isaac, a robot development platform; and GR00T, a humanoid robot foundation model.
Nvidia has the software to train robots in virtual environments, but securing partners with the hardware and control technology to validate that training in the real world remains the company's missing piece. That has fueled speculation that Nvidia could pursue joint research or talent exchange with SNU, which has strong expertise in robot control technology.
an@heraldcorp.com
