Jensen Huang Is Back in Korea — And He Says He Has “Surprises”
He’s back.
Jensen Huang Is Back in Korea — And He Started With Faker
Okay, I need to talk about what happened in my city today.
Because it started in the most unexpected way possible — and honestly, as a Korean watching it all unfold, I couldn’t stop smiling.
First Stop: A PC Bang in Hongdae
Jensen Huang — CEO of the world’s most valuable tech company — landed at Gimpo Airport this afternoon.
And his very first stop in Korea?
Not Samsung headquarters. Not a government meeting. Not a hotel press conference.
A PC bang.
Huang visited the T1 Base Camp near Hongik University in Seoul, where he met Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok — the greatest esports player in history, and honestly one of the most recognized Koreans on the planet right now — along with the entire T1 League of Legends roster.
Around 500 fans packed the venue. EDM pumping through the speakers. Phones raised everywhere. And there was Jensen Huang, in his signature leather jacket, walking through the crowd like he belonged here.
When he heard that Faker was still using an RTX 4070, Huang laughed and called it an “antique.” Then he handed him a brand new RTX 5090 — signed by himself.
Faker gave him a signed jersey in return.
Before leaving, Huang asked Faker how many hours he practices a day. Ten hours, Faker said. Huang asked if he felt he was still improving, still inventing new strategies. Faker said yes to both. WSLS 10 News
I love this moment. The CEO of Nvidia — genuinely curious about what it takes to stay at the top. That kind of respect means something here. 😊
Huang called Korea the birthplace of esports and the place where modern spectator gaming culture was created. “Korean gamers chose the best graphics processing units to win — and that was Nvidia,” he said. “I thank you all for supporting Nvidia for so long.” Wikipedia
Here’s something we Koreans already know but rarely hear said out loud by someone like him: PC bang culture didn’t just shape Korean gaming. It helped build Nvidia’s entire GeForce business. Huang showing up here first — before any boardroom, before any press conference — felt like genuine acknowledgment of that history.
That matters.
Then: Samgyeopsal, Soju, and the Biggest AI Meeting Korea Has Seen This Year
After the T1 visit, the evening got more serious — but only slightly more formal.
Huang arrived at Hyeongnim Jeoyo — roughly translated as “Bro, it’s me” — a pork belly restaurant in Hongdae, where he joined SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Naver founder and Chairman Lee Hae-jin for dinner. Wikipedia
Four of the most powerful figures in Korean business. Grilling pork belly. Drinking soju.
After dinner, the group reportedly moved on to a nearby karaoke bar — extending the evening in true Korean hoesik (회식) fashion. Wikipedia
And here’s what I want foreign readers to understand about this.
This isn’t informal because the meeting isn’t important. This IS how important meetings work in Korea. The samgyeopsal, the soju, the norebang after — that’s not a distraction from business. That’s how trust gets built here. That’s how partnerships become real.
The fact that Jensen Huang keeps choosing this format — fried chicken last October, pork belly tonight — tells me he genuinely understands Korean culture. Or at least, he’s put in the effort to learn it. And in Korea, that effort gets noticed. 😊
The Four Surprises
Remember when Huang said at the airport that he had “some surprises”?
Over dinner, he finally revealed what he meant.
“My big gift to Korea is that I brought four new businesses: Vera Rubin, Vera, RTX Spark, Jetson Thor. Of course, we are also building a very prominent research center here,” Huang said. Wikipedia
Let me break these down.
Vera Rubin is Nvidia’s next-generation AI accelerator — now in full production. The part that matters most to us? It runs on HBM4 memory from SK Hynix and Samsung. Korean chips. Inside Nvidia’s most powerful AI hardware. We’re not just consumers of this technology. We’re inside it. nus
Vera CPU is Nvidia’s first standalone processor built not for humans — but for AI agents. Faster, smarter, designed for the era of AI that Huang says is arriving faster than anyone realizes. The era where AI doesn’t just answer questions — it takes action.
RTX Spark is Nvidia’s first AI laptop lineup — co-developed with MediaTek, built on TSMC’s 3nm process. Think of it as Nvidia’s answer to Apple Silicon, but for the entire Windows ecosystem. As someone who lives and breathes tech, I’ve been waiting for something like this.
Jetson Thor is an AI edge supercomputer built specifically for humanoid robots and physical AI. If you’ve seen the robotics demos coming out of Korean companies lately — LG’s CLOiD, Hyundai’s work with Boston Dynamics — this is the hardware that powers the next wave.
Four products. All of them deeply tied to Korean companies and Korean technology.
“Korea Is Going to Get Really Busy”
That was Huang’s line. And standing here as a Korean, watching all of this happen in real time — I believe him.
On the R&D center: Huang said Nvidia has already started hiring in Korea. “As soon as we have enough people here, we’ll build a site. Korea is so good at building things. I have no trouble building a beautiful site here when the time is ready.” He added the center will likely be located in Seoul. nus
A permanent Nvidia research center in Seoul. That’s not a small thing. That’s a signal that Korea isn’t just part of the supply chain — it’s becoming part of where the future gets invented.
“Korea is doing very well. My partners in Korea are very important to me. So I came to Korea to thank them, celebrate and congratulate them for such an incredible year. This is just a beginning,” Huang said. Wikipedia
This is just a beginning.
We’ve heard that kind of thing before from foreign executives. But when it comes from the CEO of Nvidia — with four product announcements, a hiring drive, and an R&D center to back it up — it lands differently.
What’s Coming Next
Today was only Day 1 of a five-day visit.
On June 7, Huang throws the ceremonial first pitch at a Doosan Bears game at Jamsil Stadium. On June 8, he visits Naver’s second headquarters for a physical AI showcase — autonomous robots, digital twin technology, cloud-based robot control systems. Visits to Seoul National University’s AI research lab and meetings with Korean AI startup founders are also on the schedule.
He leaves Korea on June 8 afternoon.
Four days. Four products. One R&D center. Five hundred fans at a PC bang in Hongdae.
And somewhere in Mapo-gu tonight, Jensen Huang is at norebang with Korea’s biggest business leaders.
As a Korean watching all of this unfold in real time — I’ll be honest, it feels pretty good.
The world’s most powerful tech CEO chose to start his Korea trip at a PC bang. He brought four major product announcements. He’s building a research center here. And tonight he’s singing with our biggest business leaders in Hongdae.
Korea is going to get really busy. And we’re ready for it. 😊
— Your Korean insider 🇰🇷