Amid a sharp global market selloff, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared that AI's future is "an absolute fact" and told investors they should be glad stocks have become cheaper to buy.
Huang made the remarks Monday at a joint press conference with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at SK Seorin Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
"It is an absolute fact that the future of AI is very bright," he said. "Just as the internet became the world's infrastructure, it is a completely foregone conclusion that AI will become the world's infrastructure."
Huang also highlighted the scale of Nvidia's partnership with SK Hynix. "We already procure and purchase billions of dollars' worth of products from SK Hynix every year, and that figure will grow substantially — really materially — going forward," he said, adding that investors "should all be very happy" about the share price situation.
Despite the recent market drop, he said shareholders had every reason to be cheerful. "Whatever happens in the stock market, you should be very happy — because you can now buy at a discount," he added.
The Kospi fell more than 8 percent in early trading Monday, dropping below the 8,000 mark on the same day Huang delivered those remarks.
A confluence of headwinds — a sharp drop in US semiconductor stocks and a weakening won against the dollar — simultaneously pushed Samsung Electronics below the 300,000-won (about $194) threshold and SK Hynix below the 2,000,000-won level. A circuit breaker was triggered just three minutes after the opening bell, and a sell-side sidecar was also activated on the Kosdaq market as panic selling spread.
The turmoil followed a steep late-week decline on Wall Street, where Nvidia fell 6.20 percent and Micron Technology dropped 13.25 percent, sending the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 10.26 percent. The selloff appeared driven by stronger-than-expected US jobs data, which fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates before year's end.
yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com