Nvidia, Samsung, Hyundai chiefs talk chip sets over chimaek in casual tech meetup worth trillions of won

 

The heads of Nvidia, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor gathered at an unlikely spot — an unassuming, slightly rundown chicken joint in southern Seoul — on the evening of October 30, ahead of anticipated major deals among the companies during Jensen Huang’s visit to Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit.

As night fell, more than 1,000 people, including reporters, onlookers and company officials had gathered around the small chicken restaurant, prompting police to arrive, set up barricades and manage the swelling crowd. With the swarm of reporters and cameras crowding the area and spilling onto the roadway, even the most oblivious passersby realized that something was brewing as they found their paths blocked.

The location, the well-known Korean fried chicken franchise Kkanbu Chicken, was reportedly handpicked by Huang who wanted to experience the country’s famous chimaek (chicken and beer) culture. The Nvidia chief is known to be keen on trying out different local restaurants during his business trips.

The meeting among the U.S. AI chip giant, Korea’s leading chipmaker and automaker is seen as a significant step toward strengthening AI cooperation, coming a day before Nvidia’s large-scale AI chip supply deals with four major Korean conglomerates — Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor and Naver — estimated to be worth a few trillion won.

After a brief dinner, Huang and Lee were set to attend the doorstepping ceremony of the GeForce Gamer Festival at Coex in southern Seoul, held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the GPU brand’s domestic launch. Lee’s attendance comes as a surprise, said a source familiar with the matter, adding that the chairman accepted Huang’s invitation to appear together.

Samsung Electronics is supplying its fifth-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM3E) chips to Nvidia, which was verified by the chipmaker on a conference call on October 30. Samples of Samsung’s next-generation HBM4 chips are also being shipped to its clients. Nvidia-approved HBM4 chips this year could be a watershed moment for the Korean chipmaker to reclaim the top spot in the global HBM market.

“As competition over GPU (GPU) performance intensifies among our client companies, customers are demanding higher-performance HBM4,” Samsung said. “We anticipated this market need from the start of our development, and set our performance targets to exceed customer expectations. The samples currently delivered to customers can achieve over 11 gigabits per second while maintaining low power consumption.”

The company said it has already secured customer orders for expanded HBM supply next year, but is reviewing options to further boost production capacity to handle extra demand.

SK hynix, another major chipmaker, said during its conference call on October 29 that all of its 2026 memory chip supply has already been sold out, and that it plans to “significantly” increase memory-related capital spending from this year’s level. The company added that it will start delivering HBM4 chips to major clients in the fourth quarter.

Hyundai Motor and Nvidia have announced a partnership in January regarding future mobility, with cooperation spanning across multiple domains including software-defined vehicles, robotics, autonomous driving, digital twins, smart manufacturing and infotainment.

On October 31, Huang will travel to Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, to deliver a special session at the APEC CEO Summit and hold a press briefing.

Huang is reported to meet separately with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at Gyeongju on October 31.

Lee and Chung, after meeting Huang in Seoul, will also return to Gyeongju on October 31 to attend a dinner scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

BY LEE JAE-LIM, SARAH CHEA [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]