Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visits Seoul, pledges AI R&D center and 'four gifts' for Korea
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made his second visit to South Korea in seven months, holding a high-profile 'samgyeopsal' (pork belly and soju) dinner with SK's Chey Tae-won, LG's Koo Kwang-mo and Naver's Lee Hae-jin. Huang announced four new Nvidia products coming to Korea—the next-generation Vera Rubin AI accelerator, Vera CPU, RTX-Spark AI laptops, and the Jetson Thor edge supercomputer for humanoid robotics—and confirmed Samsung, SK hynix and Micron have all qualified to supply HBM4 memory. He also said Nvidia is establishing an AI/robotics R&D center, likely in Seoul, and is actively hiring engineers. Separately, headline-only reports noted Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly planning a visit to North Korea, his first in seven years.
Why it matters
Nvidia's deepening commitment underscores South Korea's pivotal role in the global AI supply chain through its memory-chip giants Samsung and SK hynix, reinforcing the HBM boom that has driven Korean equity markets and exports. Huang's charm offensive—and his push into robotics R&D—signals where the next phase of AI hardware competition is headed, with Korea positioned as a manufacturing and engineering hub. A potential Xi visit to Pyongyang, if confirmed, would mark a significant recalibration of China-North Korea ties amid broader Northeast Asian tensions.