Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shares 'somaek' with Korea's top tycoons amid partnership talks

From left, Naver Chairman of the Board Lee Hae-jin, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang make a toast with "somaek," a blend of soju and beer, at a pork belly restaurant in Mapo District, Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Seoul on Friday, seven months after making headlines with a fried chicken gathering with the heads of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group that was followed by a large-scale Nvidia artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator supply across Korea.

This time, his visit is set to focus on partnerships with a broader range of Korean firms in AI applications, including robotics, physical AI, infrastructure and gaming. In addition to his business engagements, Huang is also scheduled to make a television appearance and throw a ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game, reflecting his celebritylike popularity here.

Huang dined with some of Korea's top business leaders at Hyungnim Jeoyo, a casual pork belly barbecue restaurant near Hongik University in western Seoul, hours after his arrival in the country. He shared a table with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver Chairman of the Board Lee Hae-jin. Officials from Nvidia also joined the gathering.

From left, Naver Chairman of the Board Lee Hae-jin, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won hand out banana-flavored milk and snacks to citizens who gathered outside their dinner at a restaurant in Mapo District, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

The restaurant’s name, which roughly translates to “Hey big brother, over here,” is seen as carrying a symbolic message about strengthening ties with Korean business partners. During the meal, that message was underscored in a toast with "somaek," a blend of soju and beer, with Huang raising his glass and saying, "Go Korea, go SK, go LG and go Naver."

They handed out banana-flavored milk and snacks to citizens who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the meeting. The snacks were launched by SK hynix in collaboration with convenience store chain 7-Eleven and designed to resemble the company's flagship high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.

Lee paid for the dinner using Naver Pay's face recognition and also covered the bills of other diners at the restaurant.

The companies are key Korean partners for Nvidia in both its AI supply chain and physical AI ambitions.

SK Group's chipmaking unit, SK hynix, is Nvidia's main supplier of AI-specific HBM. Chey and Huang have now met three times in the past week, after holding back-to-back meetings at GTC Taipei 2026 and COMPUTEX 2026 in Taiwan.

For LG Group Chairman Koo, the dinner is his first meeting with Huang. LG Group is currently shifting its portfolio from traditional electronics toward AI-driven robotics.

In particular, LG Electronics is developing humanoid robots using Nvidia's platforms and has been seeking expanded cooperation with the company across a range of robotics and AI-related businesses.

Naver is also enhancing its partnership with Nvidia in the realm of physical AI. Naver Cloud signed a memorandum of understanding with Nvidia in October last year to combine its digital twin and robotics technologies with Nvidia’s Omniverse and Isaac Sim platforms.

During his previous visit to Seoul last October, Huang met Chung and Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong at Kkanbu Chicken, whose name roughly translates to “very close friends.” At the time, Huang said the venue symbolized his friendship with the two business leaders.

Huang arrived in Korea through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center at around 1:30 p.m.

“I’m back because I want to thank all of my partners and customers who are here,” Huang told reporters. “I want to make sure that ... our partners are aligned and prepared.”

Huang said he has brought “a lot of business” and “some surprises” for Korea. During the dinner, he revealed the surprises as Nvidia's new AI platform Vera Rubin, Vera central processing unit, new AI laptop RTX Spark and the Jetson Thor supercomputer for physical AI.

Huang noted that Nvidia has already started hiring for its research and development (R&D) center in Korea.

“As soon as we have enough people here, we'll build a site,” he added. “Korea is so good at building things. I have no trouble building a beautiful site here when the time is ready.” He later said that the site will likely be located in Seoul.

He said the visit is largely aimed at aligning Nvidia's supply chain, as the company needs to coordinate the production of key technologies, including dynamic random-access memory and high-bandwidth memory, to support the rollout of its Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems.

He said Korea is “an excellent place” to invest in R&D centers because of its expertise in AI, robotics and manufacturing.

“Because Korea is a manufacturing center of the world, we can apply the robotics technology, the physical AI technology that we invent here for the industry here,” he said. “The manufacturing of semiconductors will become increasingly robotics- and AI-driven in the future, so we have a great opportunity to partner with the semiconductor companies here as well.”

He noted that demand for high-speed memory is expected to remain strong. “Of course, memory is constrained and so we have to be smart about using it in all of our systems, and so we're continuing to work with our partners here to make sure that we support as much supply as possible, but use the supply as smartly as possible.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signs a copy of his book for fans after arriving at the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center in western Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

At 3 p.m., Huang met League of Legends superstar Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok at T1 Base Camp PC Bang in Seoul's Mapo District.

The meeting is seen as highlighting the role that Korea's “PC bang” and esports culture played in Nvidia's growth over the past two decades. A PC bang is an internet cafe where users pay by the hour to play games, a key foundation for Korea's rise as a global esports powerhouse and a key market for graphics processing units.

After the dinner, Huang is expected to prerecord an appearance for the popular television program “You Quiz on the Block” before holding separate meetings with NC founder Kim Taek-jin and Krafton Chairman of the Board Chang Byung-gyu over the weekend. He is also scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game between the Doosan Bears and Kiwoom Heroes on Sunday.

Next week, Huang is expected to visit the headquarters of major Korean companies, including Hyundai, LG, SK, Samsung and Naver, to discuss partnerships and meet with startups specializing in physical AI, according to industry sources.