Jensen Huang meets Krafton, NCsoft chiefs in Seoul, deepening AI gaming alliance

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met Krafton Chairman Chang Byung-gyu and NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin on Saturday to discuss cooperation in physical AI and gaming — a sign that the "AI gaming alliance" between Nvidia and South Korea's game industry is growing stronger.

Huang held the meetings Saturday afternoon at a PC bang near Sinnonhyeon Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, sitting down with senior executives from both Krafton and NCsoft.

Upon arriving, Huang first met with the Krafton team. Joining Chang at the meeting were Lee Kang-wook, Krafton's chief AI officer, and Jang Tae-seok, head of the Battlegrounds IP franchise.

The talks centered on hardware gaming collaboration built around physical AI — including humanoid robots — and Nvidia's recently unveiled AI PC brand RTX Spark, according to sources familiar with the meeting. The development points to Krafton and Nvidia cementing their AI gaming partnership around physical AI.

After the event, Chang told reporters that the visit was "a chance to confirm, alongside users at a PC bang, that Nvidia's roots lie in gaming," adding that Nvidia's new product RTX Spark "will be the starting point where gaming and AI meet."

Krafton has long maintained a particularly close relationship with Nvidia among domestic game companies. A prime example is the two firms' collaboration to introduce PUBG Ally — a feature in "PUBG: Battlegrounds" that lets players enjoy the game alongside an AI companion — built on Nvidia's ACE AI character technology.

In addition, Krafton's senior executives visited Nvidia's headquarters in California in April last year to discuss next-generation technology cooperation, including in the robotics field.

Huang then moved to a nearby PC bang to meet NCsoft CEO Kim, Executive Vice President Bae Jae-heon and Senior Executive Vice President Lee Sung-goo. He greeted users at an on-site event and looked at NCsoft's new title "Aion 2." NCsoft was holding a "Surprise Live" event at the venue, where key "Aion 2" developers presented the game's future development direction and update plans to users.

Huang and Kim made a surprise appearance on the live broadcast to discuss the future of the gaming industry and AI technology. "Aion 2" drew attention at launch for incorporating Nvidia's latest graphics technologies, including DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) frame generation and Nvidia Reflex.

"After 40 years in graphics computing, I'm now looking to invent the PC with AI," Huang said. "We've built a new computer and a new PC architecture, and we've also announced a new chip, the N1X, which took three years to develop."

Huang also gave away a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU bearing his personal signature to a fan selected through a raffle.

NC AI, NCsoft's AI subsidiary, will also attend a private roundtable Nvidia is hosting for domestic robotics and AI startups on Sunday.