Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang arrived in Korea on Wednesday and signaled the possibility of announcing major business partnerships with Korean conglomerates. Starting with a meeting with the chiefs of SK, LG and Naver that day, he will meet successively over four days with executives from Doosan, NC and Hyundai Motor, intensively discussing strategies to maximize synergy between physical artificial intelligence (AI) and Korean manufacturing.
After entering the country through the Seoul Gimpo Business Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Huang met reporters and said, "I have brought a lot of business to Korea," adding that "several 'surprises' are prepared." The gifts are Nvidia's new products that will offer fresh market opportunities to Korean memory and manufacturing companies: the AI chip "Vera Rubin," the AI PC "RTX Spark," and the autonomous driving chip "Jetson Thor."
He noted in particular, "Korea is the world's manufacturing hub and has excellent robotics capabilities," and said, "We will be able to apply (Nvidia's) physical AI technology to industrial sites."
Huang said the company is recruiting staff to build a research and development (R&D) center in Seoul that will serve as an outpost to realize such cooperation. Nvidia is hiring physical AI researchers to work at its "AI Technology Center."
At a dinner that evening, Huang met SK Group Chairman Tae-won Choi, LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, where they intensively discussed expanding AI chip production and strengthening physical AI cooperation. At a barbecue restaurant near Hongik University in Seoul, they held a so-called "sam-so meeting" — pork belly accompanied by soju — late into the night, followed by a second round of "chi-maek" (chicken and beer).
SK, LG and Naver are actively using Nvidia's physical AI technologies "Omniverse" and "Isaac" to build AI factories and develop robots.
Ahead of his meeting with the conglomerate chiefs, Huang's first stop was the "T1 Base Camp" internet cafe in Mapo, where he met T1 pro gamers including Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok), showing special affection for Korea's gaming industry, a core market for graphics processing units (GPUs).
