Jensen Huang appeared in Seoul, with all topics revolving around HBM, 2nm process technology, and autonomous driving

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, met with the leaders of Samsung and Hyundai Motor in Seoul during his first official visit to South Korea in over a decade on Thursday, highlighting the deepening "artificial intelligence deep cooperation relationship" between the AI chip superpower and South Korea's memory chip and automotive industry chain. Whether it is Huang's itinerary itself, the specific summaries of his discussions with the leaders of Samsung and Hyundai, or the cooperation prospects he revealed in a brief interview with South Korean large enterprises, it mainly revolves around HBM storage systems (HBM3E and HBM4), 2.5D/3D advanced packaging, cutting-edge chip processes of 2nm and below, and high-performance NVIDIA GPU computing systems that drive fully autonomous driving systems and humanoid robots.

For NVIDIA's continuously strong growth performance expectations, the 12-layer HBM3E storage system provided by Samsung and the potential future provision of 2nm-level AI chip foundry and advanced packaging will play an important role. The "fully autonomous driving system + large-scale humanoid/moving robot fleet" being developed by the Hyundai Group is expected to make NVIDIA's automotive and robotics business the second largest growth point for NVIDIA, next to its data center business.

The tech tycoon expressed his anticipation for a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Friday local time and stated that there would be many significant announcements between NVIDIA (NVDA.US) and South Korean companies. Huang also expressed confidence in the earlier China-U.S. talks held in South Korea and maintained confidence in NVIDIA's expansion prospects in the Chinese market.

"I fully believe that the two leaders had a very optimistic dialogue. But this does not necessarily involve anything I do," Huang stated during an interview in Seoul.

At the GTC conference on Tuesday Eastern Time, Huang released a significant performance signal stating that "Blackwell and the next-generation Rubin architecture will jointly drive NVIDIA's data center business revenue to exceed $500 billion over the next five quarters," pushing NVIDIA's total market value to surpass and stabilize at the $5 trillion mark, becoming the world's first company to reach a market value of $5 trillion.

The "Godfather of AI," Jensen Huang, firmly believes that the so-called "AI era" has fully arrived, and NVIDIA is completely upgrading from "a chip design company" to "the strongest technological foundation of the AI era" — which includes a full-stack infrastructure and complete industrial operating system related to AI. NVIDIA defines this "AI technology foundation" as a full-stack technology platform ranging from underlying silicon products to AI-level rack computing clusters, AI factories, and the entire industry ecosystem.

As Huang announced a series of significant news that will drive the global acceleration of AI penetration, the market may temporarily set aside the so-called "AI bubble theory." At the GTC conference, Huang also rarely responded directly to market concerns about the "AI bubble," stating that AI has reached a turning point where "customers are willing to pay real cash for large models," and the commercial returns of expensive AI computing infrastructure have emerged, thus forming a "positive cycle." Recently, the prices of high-performance storage products in the global DRAM and NAND series have surged. Coupled with the fact that the world's highest-valued AI startup, OpenAI, has secured over $1 trillion in AI computing infrastructure deals, as well as the "king of chip foundries," TSMC, and South Korea's two major memory giants, Samsung and SK Hynix, all reporting exceptionally strong and better-than-expected performances while significantly raising their future outlooks, this has collectively reinforced the "long-term bull market narrative logic" for AI GPU, ASIC, HBM, data center SSD storage systems, liquid cooling systems, core power equipment, and other AI computing infrastructure sectors.

"Fried Chicken and Beer" Korean Wave Culture

Jensen Huang, along with Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-Yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Chung Eui-sun, enjoyed fried chicken and beer at a local Korean chain restaurant "깐부치킨" (Kkanbu Chicken) in the upscale Gangnam district of Seoul—this is a popular after-work pairing in Korea known as "치맥" (fried chicken and beer, chimaek).

The term "Kkanbu" can roughly be translated as "close friend" or "very trustworthy partner." This Korean Wave cultural bond became widely known globally due to the Netflix series "Squid Game," released in 2021, which symbolizes absolute loyalty among allies in the show.

"To our partnership and the future of the world," Jensen Huang was captured by reporters saying as he headed to the restaurant to meet Lee Jae-Yong and Chung Eui-sun.

Hundreds of people, including well-known media, flocked to the restaurant's vicinity just to catch a glimpse of Jensen Huang—the "Godfather of AI," who leads a tech giant that has become the world's first publicly traded company with a market value of $5 trillion. He is also known for actively interacting and taking photos with NVIDIA fans.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and dark pants, Jensen Huang emerged from the restaurant, handing out baskets filled with fried chicken and fried cheese to the people gathered outside.

This significant meeting among tech leaders occurred just before Jensen Huang is expected to announce a series of important potential statements or any deals with major South Korean companies, stating that these deals would "satisfy both U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean businesses."

Jensen Huang gifted each Lee Jae-Yong and Chung Eui-sun a mini NVIDIA AI supercomputer, with a note attached to each gift box: "To the future and our partnership with each other."

Reporters captured the moment when the three industry leaders linked arms and raised their glasses in a toast known in Korea as "love shot," symbolizing friendship and trust.

HBM, 2nm Advanced Chip Process, Autonomous Driving, and Humanoid Robots

Regarding the specifics of this significant meeting among the three, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang briefly stated in an interview after leaving the restaurant that they discussed deep cooperation on enhancing HBM storage, fully autonomous driving systems, and the accelerated penetration of humanoid robots, as well as potential chip foundry collaboration prospects. "If you look at the entire South Korean tech ecosystem, almost every major company is my close friend and important partner." Jensen Huang stated.

At this week's GTC conference in Washington, Jensen Huang emphasized that human society has entered the "AI era" with the "AI GPU architecture product roadmap + AI hardware and software ecosystem collaboration + latest revenue visibility" trio he presented. He pointed out that the skepticism surrounding the technology stock "AI bubble" is an irrational viewpoint stemming from a lack of understanding of the global AI industry chain, and that NVIDIA is accelerating its transformation from a "chip company" to "the strongest foundation for AI."

During this visit, Huang clearly stated that "this week we will announce cooperation with our Korean partners," specifically targeting the core decision-making teams of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, indicating that the collaboration is of a "feasible and scalable" nature rather than a ceremonial visit.

Recent developments show that Samsung Electronics' 12-layer HBM3E has passed NVIDIA's quality certification and plans to ship HBM4 samples to NVIDIA for early adoption. This directly alleviates NVIDIA's critical HBM supply constraints (previously, NVIDIA's AI GPU HBM storage mainly relied on SK Hynix and Micron): firstly, it aims to further expand NVIDIA's available storage chip capacity amid a significant recent increase in storage chip production capacity and prices; secondly, it creates a positive cycle of HBM storage pricing and AI GPU computing power clusters accelerating expansion into global data centers, which is undoubtedly very beneficial for the volume rhythm and gross margin stability of the Blackwell/Rubin platform.

Global HBM leader SK Hynix, which holds the largest market share in the HBM market, achieved record high performance in the third quarter, with operating profit soaring by 62%. This is due to the complete "sell-out" of its HBM storage systems. The company stated that it has secured all DRAM and NAND customer demand through 2026, with HBM4 expected to ship by the end of 2025. Wall Street financial giant Morgan Stanley indicated that SK Hynix's "sell-out" signal shows that storage capacity supply will become tighter, and the environment for rising storage chip prices will persist throughout 2026, bringing the performance growth outlook in the global storage chip sector closer to the super cycle benchmark of 2017-2018.

The industry is also paying attention to the potential collaboration expectations between Samsung's foundry + advanced packaging systems (I-Cube/X-Cube) and NVIDIA, combined with market reports about customized 2nm AI chips and NVLink-related computing power ecosystems possibly being realized at Samsung's chip foundry, further heating up expectations for deep cooperation between NVIDIA and Samsung. If some orders are realized in Korea with a "packaging + supply closed loop," it will further enhance NVIDIA's supply chain resilience and geographical diversification of foundries.

Hyundai Motor Group has established AI cooperation with NVIDIA aimed at "future mobility": jointly advancing in autonomous driving/SDV and the Isaac robotics platform, which is highly synchronized with NVIDIA's strategic platform for robotics and fully autonomous driving (DRIVE AGX Hyperion 10) announced during GTC. Hyundai is a global scale vehicle group, and if it deeply binds NVIDIA's GPU computing power system in L2+/L3 and higher-level functions, as well as "AI factory" and humanoid robot development and mass production, it will provide a multi-year order moat for NVIDIA's automotive and edge AI business