Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, reunited in Korea with Jensen Huang, Nvidia founder and chief executive officer, in less than a week. The two "AI heavyweights" held a separate meeting at the GTC Taipei and Computex events in Taiwan on the 1st and 2nd, and continued their solid "AI alliance" with additional encounters during an SK hynix booth tour.
On the 5th, the chairman had dinner with CEO Jensen Huang at a samgyeopsal restaurant in Seoul's Hongdae. It appears to reflect Huang's tastes, as he usually enjoys traveling to the United States, China, and Taiwan to try popular local foods. The two also enjoyed Korean-style chicken together in February in Santa Clara, United States, where Nvidia is headquartered, making this samgyeopsal meeting a reciprocal visit by Huang.
Publicly known meetings between the two have reached six over the past seven months. Starting with APEC in Gyeongju in October last year, Chairman Chey and CEO Jensen Huang have met in the United States and Taiwan. Given the intensive meetings in a short period, analysts say the agenda has expanded beyond simple semiconductor supply to discussions on the growth of the global AI market and the broader ecosystem.
Cooperation between SK Group and Nvidia is spreading in all directions beyond HBM and GPUs. In October last year, SK Group agreed with Nvidia to build a "manufacturing AI cloud" to drive AI innovation in Korea's manufacturing ecosystem. SK Group is building the "Omniverse platform," powered by Nvidia GPUs, and opening it to SK Group affiliates, Korean public institutions, and startups. Omniverse is a "Digital Twin platform" that mirrors manufacturing processes in an online three-dimensional (3D) virtual space for simulation.
SK Telecom is participating in the development of AI-RAN (radio access network), which Nvidia is pursuing as a core technology for sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications, collaborating on R&D, demonstrations, and the discovery of AI services specialized for AI-RAN. CEO Jensen Huang also drew attention by naming SK Telecom a strategic partner during his GTC Taipei keynote on the 1st in Taiwan.
Based on the trust, collaboration, and capabilities accumulated between the two sides, the "AI triangular alliance" linking SK hynix, Nvidia, and TSMC—reportedly first conceived by the chairman—is expected to gain further momentum. CEO Jensen Huang has expressed confidence in SK hynix's semiconductor technologies, including HBM, and on the 3rd, the chairman and TSMC Chairman Wei Zhejia held a separate meeting in Taiwan to reaffirm their commitment to technical cooperation for developing AI Semiconductor chips, signaling even closer ties among the three companies.
Some say the significance of this samgyeopsal meeting lies in the chairman, as the elder statesman of Korea's business community, meeting CEO Jensen Huang alongside leading domestic players such as LG and Naver to show a willingness to pioneer the global AI market together with Korea. To complete Nvidia's vision for physical AI and region-specific sovereign AI ecosystems, the unrivaled manufacturing, mobility, and software capabilities of Korea's key corporations are essential. For Nvidia, it is also seen as an opportunity to gain a clear view of Korea's strengths and join hands through the chairman, with whom it has maintained a close relationship.
A business community official said, "SK and Nvidia began with initial cooperation in the semiconductor supply chain, but as the importance of AI infrastructure as a whole has been emphasized, the two sides are likely discussing a much broader scope of collaboration," adding, "Chairman Chey has been tirelessly building trust with Jensen Huang, and these efforts appear to be helping lay the groundwork for Korea and Korean corporations to lead the global AI market."