Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Krafton Chairman Chang Byung-gyu during his visit to Seoul on Sunday.
Huang attended a Krafton "Battlegrounds" (PUBG) influencer event at a PC bang near Sinnonhyeon Station, where he met with Chang, Krafton Chief AI Officer Lee Kang-wook and Battlegrounds IP franchise head Jang Tae-seok.
Huang is also expected to meet with NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin and other company officials to discuss potential cooperation in AI game development, digital humans, simulation and physical AI.
Huang has a particularly strong interest in the gaming industry. NCsoft has maintained a working relationship with Nvidia in the gaming space — most recently when it showcased "Aion 2" and "Synder City" at the Nvidia GeForce Gamer Festival in Seoul during Huang's previous visit in October last year. He was also reported to be meeting separately with Krafton Chairman Chang and other executives.
Later in the day, Huang is scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Doosan Bears home game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. He will wear a Doosan uniform bearing the number 93, representing the year Nvidia was founded.
Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won, who owns the Bears, is expected to step up to the plate as the ceremonial first batter wearing jersey number 96 — a nod to Doosan's founding year of 1896.
The industry has long discussed the possibility of Doosan building a partnership with Nvidia in areas such as robotics. The joint ceremonial appearance is widely seen as a public signal of both companies' willingness to cooperate.
Huang will then meet with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at Kkanbuchicken's Samsung branch in Gangnam-gu, Seoul — the same venue where Huang met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung during his October visit last year.
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, SK Hynix AI Infrastructure President Kim Ju-sun, SK Telecom CEO Jeong Jae-heon and SK Telecom AI CIC head and Chief Technology Officer Jeong Seok-geun will also attend.
Industry watchers expect Huang and Chey to discuss key areas of cooperation between their companies, including AI semiconductors, HBM and AI data centers.
dlcw@heraldcorp.com
