Jensen Huang, Chey Tae-won toast 'AI alliance' at Seoul fried chicken joint

"Wow, what a day!"

At 7:40 p.m. Sunday at Kkanboo Chicken in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung popped a beer bottle cap with a fork and poured a mix of soju and beer into a shot glass. Huang took the glass, tapped it with a spoon in the Korean style to work up a froth, and shouted "Wow, what a day!" He and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won then linked arms and downed a "love shot" together, with Chey declaring: "So, now become a 깐부!" — a reference to the Korean term for a close, trusted companion.

The dinner marked Huang's return to the same restaurant where, during his visit last October, he had met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung — this time for a relaxed evening with SK Group's top executives.

With the meeting falling on a weekend, attendees arrived in casual attire. SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, in a white short-sleeve shirt and casual jacket, arrived alongside SK Hynix AI Infrastructure President Kim Ju-sun and SK Telecom CEO Jeong Jae-heon at around 6:45 p.m., settling in ahead of the main guests.

Huang arrived at 6:48 p.m., still wearing the No. 93 baseball uniform he had donned earlier as the ceremonial first-pitch thrower at a Doosan Bears home game — the number representing 1993, the year Nvidia was founded. His wife, Lori Huang, accompanied him in a matching uniform bearing her name in hangul. A crowd of fans gathered outside erupted in cheers, and Huang walked over to sign autographs and take selfies with them one by one.

Chey arrived at 6:55 p.m. in a navy shirt and jeans, and the dinner got fully underway. Seated at the table were Huang and his wife, their eldest daughter Madison Huang — Nvidia's senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics — along with her husband, Chey, and SK Group's presidents. Chey's eldest daughter, Chey Yoon-jung, head of strategy at SK Biopharm, also joined. The group stood to toast with draft beer before sitting down to fried chicken. Huang changed out of his baseball uniform into his trademark black T-shirt and settled in with a pint and fried chicken.

The dinner came just two days after Huang's first meeting with Chey on Friday, the opening day of his Korea visit, when the two joined LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin for a samgyeopsal — grilled pork belly — and soju dinner near Hongik University in Seoul. That evening, the group also made a second stop at a nearby BBQ outlet for fried chicken.

The dinner included an impromptu moment of public engagement. Around 7:14 p.m., Huang and Chey stepped outside and personally handed out food to the crowd. Huang passed pieces of chicken directly to fans, saying "Would you like chicken?" and "Very delicious." Chey distributed canned sikhye — a traditional Korean sweet rice drink — along with HBM chip-shaped snacks.

Back inside, Huang spoke about Nvidia's deepening partnership with SK Group. Asked about collaboration with SK Hynix and SK Telecom, he said the two companies had achieved "really great results" with SK Hynix this year and were preparing for "very significant growth" in the second half of this year and next year. He said SK Hynix's DRAM would be used in Nvidia's newly announced AI computers, the Vera Rubin and the Vera CPU.

He then pumped his fist and shouted: "I want more HBM!"

Huang said the two companies were collaborating "across many industries — from AI supercomputers and CPUs to new PCs and robotics" and that he had come to Seoul "to make plans," hinting that "there will probably be some announcements" on Monday. On cooperation in telecommunications, he said today's networks are built only for transmitting data "in bits," but that in the future they would be repurposed for AI. "We are in a lot of discussions, and I hope we can reinvent the telecom network for the age of AI," he said.

Asked why he had met with Chey seven times over the past seven months, Huang said simply: "I work with my friends. I enjoy seeing him." On not having met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong during this trip, Huang said the two had recently shared "a very nice dinner" in California, and added that he would be meeting Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun on Monday.

About 10 minutes after stepping outside, the group returned to the restaurant, where rounds of soju-beer bombs and more love shots reaffirmed the two companies' bond. Chey shared a love shot not only with Huang but also with Nvidia Senior Vice President Jeff Fisher. Huang sat beside Chey at the same table where he had sat with Lee Jae-yong and Euisun Chung last year, and the two held a private conversation. Huang left at around 7:55 p.m., while Chey, SK Group's presidents, Lori Huang, Madison Huang and her husband, and Fisher remained to continue talking.

Huang's Korea visit continues through Monday. He is scheduled to meet Chey for a morning tea session at SK Corp's Serin Building at around 8:30 a.m. to discuss cooperation, and is also expected to visit the offices of LG Group, Hyundai Motor Group and Naver. That afternoon, he is set to hold a closed-door meeting with domestic AI and robotics startups at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, and is scheduled to sit down with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon.

That evening, Huang plans to meet Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, who leads the company's semiconductor business, at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. When reporters asked Sunday whether he planned to visit Samsung Electronics on Monday, Huang said: "I'm looking forward to meeting Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun on Monday."

젠슨 황, 내일 SK 본사 찾아 AI 협력 청사진 발표한다

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