Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
SK, Nvidia deepen AI alliance at another Kkanbu Chicken meetup
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, center, poses with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, sixth from left, and senior executives from both firms at a Kkanbu Chicken restaurant in Seoul, Sunday. They include SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, fourth from left, SK Telecom CEO Jung Jai-hun, seventh from left, and Madison Huang, left, senior director of product marketing at Nvidia. Yonhap
By Lee Min-hyung
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with SK’s senior executives at a fried chicken restaurant in Seoul, Sunday evening, for what industry watchers expect to be a wide-ranging discussion on their deepening artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation.
Led by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, key executives from the group’s cash-cow affiliates attended the symbolic gathering with the head of the world’s most valuable company at a Kkanbu Chicken restaurant — the same venue where Huang dined with Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun last October.
Alongside Chey, SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung and SK Telecom CEO Jung Jai-hun also attended the casual dinner with Huang, which was reportedly arranged at the Nvidia chief's request.
They discussed a wide range of AI partnerships in areas such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), AI semiconductors, data center infrastructures and physical AI.
With both Nvidia and SK Group paying particular attention to smart factories, both sides are also expected to bring up the agenda on the dialogue table.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, right, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won share fried chicken and snacks to reporters and citizens in front of a Kkanbu Chicken restaurant in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
SK hynix is slated to supply Nvidia with the former’s sixth-generation HBM4 chips used for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin AI accelerator.
On the telecom front, Nvidia and SK Telecom are partnering on digital twin technology for physical AI applications. Digital twin refers to a virtual representation of real-world physical systems or products.
Earlier this month, Huang introduced SK Telecom's digital twin system — powered by Nvidia’s Omniverse platform — used for semiconductor manufacturing at SK hynix’s production lines during his GTC Taipei 2026 keynote.
"Huang's multiple meetings with top executives from Korean tech firms display Nvidia's willingness to preemptively taking the lead in the era of physical AI," an official from the industry said.