Jie Ye-eun
Inside Korea’s chaebol leadership and tech industry
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (left) and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won raise their glasses during a fried chicken-and-beer dinner at Kkanbu Chicken in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, on Sunday. (Yonhap) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won over fried chicken and beer in southern Seoul on Sunday, their second meeting in two days, as the two sides continued to signal closer ties in artificial intelligence.The latest meeting, held at Kkanbu Chicken in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, came as Nvidia and SK Group are expanding cooperation across AI chips, high-bandwidth memory and next-generation telecom networks.Huang and Chey arrived at the restaurant at around 6:50 p.m. Huang, who arrived first, signed autographs for people gathered outside before Chey joined him. The two exchanged a high-five as soon as they sat down and raised glasses of draft beer.The venue was familiar territory for Huang. In late October last year, during his visit to Korea for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit, he met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun at the same restaurant. The dinner quickly became known as the “Kkanbu summit,” borrowing from a Korean term for close friends.Chey was not part of that gathering, though he had separately met Huang in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, where he chaired the APEC CEO Summit.Sunday’s dinner was arranged at Nvidia’s request, and the restaurant was also suggested by the US chipmaker, according to industry sources.Before heading to the restaurant, Huang had thrown the ceremonial first pitch at a Korea Baseball Organization game between the Kiwoom Heroes and the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. After the baseball outing, he returned to what has become one of his favorite Korean pairings: fried chicken and beer.The dinner came just two days after Huang and Chey met at a pork barbecue restaurant near Hongik University Station in western Seoul for what local media dubbed a “samso” meeting, a portmanteau of samgyeopsal, or grilled pork belly, and soju. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won share HBM chips and fried chicken with people during their chicken-and-beer gathering at Kkanbu Chicken in southern Seoul, on Sunday. (Yonhap) Based on publicly known meetings, Huang and Chey have met seven times over the past seven months since the APEC CEO Summit in late October.Several senior SK executives joined Sunday’s dinner, including SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung; Kim Ju-seon, president and head of AI infrastructure at SK hynix; SK Telecom CEO Jung Jai-hun; and Chung Suk-geun, CTO and head of AI Company-in-Company at SK Telecom.Huang was also joined by his wife Lori Huang and his eldest daughter Madison Huang, senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics at Nvidia.The gathering appeared relaxed, with participants downplaying the business tone of the dinner.“It wasn’t exactly a business setting today. We just had small talk,” Kwak told reporters after the meeting, adding that they talked about which chicken tasted good.The SK Telecom chief also described the conversation as light, saying they exchanged “various fun stories.”Asked why SK’s top executives had joined the meeting, Chey said, “We always do that. It just happened while he was in Korea.”On what he had discussed with Huang, Chey joked, “He was busy signing autographs. We are about to talk now.”Asked whether he had felt left out of last year’s Kkanbu summit, Chey said, “It was not me who was disappointed. Jensen was the one who was disappointed.”Huang, meanwhile, hinted at the possibility of fresh announcements involving SK Group.“We are here to plan, and then maybe tomorrow we’ll have some announcements,” Huang told reporters.“We’re working across many industries, from AI supercomputers to CPUs to new PCs and robotics,” he said.Huang said his meeting with SK Telecom executives reflected the growing role of AI in telecommunications."The future of telecommunications is going to increasingly involve AI supercomputers. The telecommunications network today is only for bits; in the future, it will also be used for AI," he said.He added that Nvidia is holding various discussions with SK Telecom and hopes to help “reinvent telecommunications networks” for the AI era. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (fifth from left), SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (sixth from left) and senior SK executives pose after a fried chicken-and-beer dinner at Kkanbu Chicken’s Samseong branch in southern Seoul, on Sunday. (Yonhap) Huang also underscored Nvidia’s partnership with SK hynix, a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in Nvidia’s AI accelerators.“We had a very big year this year with SK hynix, and we are preparing for a very, very large second half of the year and next year,” he said. "We introduced four new products this year, just recently. Before, we only had AI supercomputers. Now, we just announced a new AI supercomputer called Vera Rubin. It is now in full production.""We also introduced Vera CPU, which is a revolutionary CPU, and it will also use SK hynix’s DRAMs. We also introduced two new other products, RTX Spark, which is a reinvention of the PC, a brand new future. And then lastly, robotics, a new processor called Thor. And so, we’re working across many industries, from AI supercomputers to CPUs to new PCs and robotics," he added.Asked why he was not meeting Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Sunday, Huang said Lee was traveling.“He just came to see me in California, and we had a wonderful dinner just a couple of weeks ago,” Huang said.Instead, Huang is scheduled to meet Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Jun Young-hyun at the Shilla Seoul in central Seoul on Monday.“I‘m looking forward to meeting YH tomorrow,” Huang said.On the memory supply crunch, Huang said shortages are likely to persist for several years, citing strong demand for AI chips and constraints across the broader supply chain."The whole industry supply chain, everything from wafers to packaging to silicon photonics to cable connectors, everything is in short supply because the demand is so great," Huang said.Huang is also scheduled to visit SK Group’s headquarters in central Seoul on Monday morning for another meeting with Chey.For Huang, the Kkanbu summit ended shortly before 8 p.m., after the SK hynix CEO surprised diners by picking up the tab for everyone in the restaurant. Chey stayed on with SK Telecom CEO, Madison Huang and Kim Ju-seon to continue the dinner.
