Paris Baguette cake grabs spotlight at Nvidia CEO’s birthday

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, center, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, fifth from right, pose with executives and officials from both companies during a dinner at a 99 Chicken restaurant in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 5 (local time). Yonhap

Korean bakery brand Paris Baguette got an unexpected marketing boost when the global brand's cake was served at Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s birthday party in the United States.

According to the brand’s operator, Paris Croissant, on Sunday, a Paris Baguette Strawberry Soft Cream Cake was delivered to the party at a restaurant near the U.S. company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California on Feb. 14 (local time). The party was held three days before the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor expert's birthday.

Huang invited 30 key engineers behind SK hynix’s DRAM and high-bandwidth memory 4 to the celebration. The venue, a fried chicken joint called 99 Chicken, is the same restaurant where SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with Huang on Feb. 5 to discuss business collaborations.

Huang energized the gathering by personally mixing and serving "somaek" — a blend of soju and beer — to Korean guests at each table.

“It was all about the symbolic moment — our brand's cake being present at a birthday party for the current leader of the global AI industry. It was a total boon without costing us anything,” a Paris Croissant official said.

Paris Baguette Strawberry Soft Cream Cake / Courtesy of Paris Croissant

Paris Croissant has 10 Paris Baguette stores across Silicon Valley and the rest of Santa Clara County, and operates 280 Paris Baguette stores across the U.S.

Last September, the company began building a new bakery manufacturing plant in Texas to strengthen its value chain in the country. The first phase of construction is planned for completion by the end of next year.