Jensen Huang's resignation puts Korean chipmakers, AI startups on alert

The abrupt resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over a personal misconduct scandal has put South Korea's semiconductor equipment makers and AI startups on alert over potential fallout. Huang had cultivated close ties with the heads of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and the central question for the industry is whether his departure will dampen large-scale capital spending on data centers and other semiconductor-intensive facilities. "There has been no impact such as a reduction in investment so far," one industry official said. "We are watching the situation closely."

Nvidia's board announced Thursday that Huang had stepped down from all his roles — president, CEO and board director — effective that day.

Among domestic semiconductor equipment makers, Hanmi Semiconductor is seen as most directly exposed to Nvidia's indirect influence. Hanmi Semiconductor is South Korea's leading maker of thermal-compression (TC) bonders used in HBM production. According to the company's half-year report, its main customers include SK hynix and Micron, with Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek among its domestic clients. Sales to SK hynix are understood to account for a relatively large share of its revenue. In June, Hanmi Semiconductor signed a supply contract with SK hynix worth 44.2 billion won ($33.2 million) for its TC Bonder 4.5 Griffin, designed for HBM4 manufacturing.

The supply chain runs in sequence: Hanmi Semiconductor produces the TC bonders, SK hynix uses them to manufacture HBM, and the finished HBM chips go into Nvidia's products. Any instability in Nvidia's leadership — as the ultimate destination for that HBM — could therefore ripple back to Hanmi Semiconductor to some degree.

A Hanmi Semiconductor official played down the immediate risk, however. "The direct impact of Jensen Huang's resignation is limited. It is hard to see major chipmakers halting their facility investment at this point," the official said. "It is a significant industry development, and we are monitoring it carefully."

Nvidia itself also appears to see little risk of disruption to existing business. In an official statement released Thursday, Nvidia board chair Harvey Jones expressed confidence in the current management team and said commitments to customers and the product development roadmap would continue without interruption.

South Korean AI startups are watching for any shift in Nvidia's investment and partnership strategy. Just three days before the resignation announcement, Nvidia co-hosted an AI startup partnership forum at COEX in Seoul with the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday and unveiled plans to invest in four domestic startups — Point2 Technology, Motif Technologies, Realworld and Upstage. Nvidia had outlined plans to deepen cooperation with Korean companies in AI semiconductors, infrastructure, foundation models and robotics, but whether those announcements will proceed as planned remains uncertain.

Domestic AI chipmakers Rebellions and Furiosa AI are also drawing attention. Rebellions has been working to ensure compatibility with Nvidia's MGX server specifications while expanding its own NPU business. Furiosa AI is targeting the AI inference market with its second-generation NPU "Renegade," pursuing partnerships with AMD and others.

"It is hard to deny that Jensen Huang was a symbolic figure for the AI semiconductor industry, but that alone is unlikely to break the sector's momentum," a semiconductor industry official said. "Uncertainty on the investment side has certainly risen, but existing customer relationships have not been severed, previously placed orders have not been canceled, and there are no delays in new equipment adoption at this point."