Euisun Chung visits Nvidia HQ, deepening physical AI alliance with Jensen Huang

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung has taken his physical AI push to Nvidia's doorstep. About a month after welcoming Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, Chung traveled to Nvidia's campus himself. The two companies' 'physical AI alliance' — spanning autonomous driving, robotics, manufacturing AI and data centers — appears to be moving into the follow-up phase at an accelerating pace.

Nvidia shared photos Friday on its X account showing Chung visiting the company's headquarters and posing alongside Huang. The two men stood side by side, smiling broadly for the camera.

In the post, Nvidia wrote that Chung "stopped by Nvidia on the way to San Francisco" and that "Jensen Huang welcomed Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung." The San Francisco visit is understood to refer to an AI summit where President Lee Jae-myung met with Huang and other global tech leaders to announce what has been called the "San Francisco AI Declaration."

During the visit, Chung and Huang held follow-up discussions on areas of cooperation — autonomous driving, robotics and manufacturing AI — first mapped out at their Seoul meeting last month.

The two executives first gave concrete shape to their partnership at a June 8 meeting at Hyundai Motor Group's Yangjae headquarters in Seoul. At that meeting, Huang visited the campus in person, sat down with Chung, and discussed a broad range of cooperation across autonomous driving, robotics, manufacturing AI and data centers.

Chung also briefed Huang directly on the Saemangeum project at that meeting, proposing ways to integrate AI, robotics and data center infrastructure into the site. Huang responded with enthusiasm, describing the Saemangeum vision as an "AI Valley" comparable to Silicon Valley. Those plans are widely expected to have featured again on the agenda at Friday's meeting at Nvidia's US headquarters.

Huang has spoken highly of Hyundai Motor Group's manufacturing and mobility capabilities, citing the group as a key partner for the physical AI era. With finished vehicles, production factories, autonomous driving, robotics and hydrogen energy all under one roof, Hyundai Motor Group is widely regarded as a leading company capable of deploying physical AI across real industrial settings.

In autonomous driving, Nvidia's automotive AI chips and software platform could align closely with Hyundai Motor Group's software-defined vehicle strategy. In robotics, analysts have raised the possibility of combining Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Motor Group's factory operations with Nvidia's AI computing technology.

The two companies also share overlapping interests in manufacturing AI. Hyundai Motor Group is pursuing a software-defined factory initiative that would shift its production plants to a software- and data-driven model. Nvidia holds strengths in AI chips, digital twins and robot simulation. Observers say the two could collaborate on replicating real factories in virtual environments and pre-validating robot movements and production processes before deployment.

The Saemangeum project is also drawing attention as a symbolic hub for the partnership. Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest 9 trillion won ($6.12 billion) in stages starting this year on a 1,124,000-square-meter site in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, building a future-technology innovation hub encompassing robotics, AI, hydrogen energy, solar power and an AI hydrogen city. The plan calls for co-developing an AI data center, a robot manufacturing and components cluster, and hydrogen-based energy infrastructure to support autonomous driving, robotics and smart factory development.

Building on its strengths as a company that owns finished vehicles, production factories, robotics and hydrogen energy infrastructure, Hyundai Motor Group is expanding its identity beyond a future mobility company toward a physical AI enterprise. Its partnership with Nvidia is emerging as a central pillar of that transformation, advancing the group's capabilities in autonomous driving, manufacturing AI and data centers.

Chung and Huang have been meeting with notable frequency. Their relationship stretches back to an informal "chimaek" (fried chicken and beer) dinner in Gangnam, Seoul, in October last year, followed by a meeting at CES 2026 in Las Vegas in January, and then last month's visit to Korea by Huang — which included a couples' luncheon and a separate session at Hyundai Motor Group's Yangjae headquarters.