(3rd LD) Nvidia's Jensen Huang meets chiefs of S. Korean gaming firms

SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang met with the heads of South Korea's two major gaming companies Sunday to discuss collaboration beyond gaming, including artificial intelligence (AI).

On the third day of his four-day visit to South Korea, Huang toured internet cafes in southern Seoul and held separate meetings with Krafton Executive Director Chang Byung-gyu and NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin.

Huang and Kim also made a brief appearance before fans gathered at the venue, where Huang drew cheers by referencing NCSOFT's upcoming game Aion 2.

"Who's the best?" Huang asked, prompting a crowd of fans to respond with cheers.

NCSOFT also held a user event, attended by key developers of Aion 2. The company presented its future development direction and update plans for the game.

Prior to the visit, Huang stopped at another internet cafe nearby, where he also met Krafon's chief AI officer, Lee Kang-wook, and the head of the company's smash-hit title PUBG: Battlegrounds.

The two sides reportedly discussed potential cooperation involving Nvidia's RTX Spark platform for premium Windows laptops, as well as physical AI technologies.

Earlier this year, Krafton established a robotics subsidiary, Ludo Robotics, as part of its push into AI-driven robotics.

Since arriving in South Korea on Friday, Huang has actively engaged with the country's gaming community, highlighting Nvidia's growing interest in the gaming and AI sectors.

On the first day of his visit, he met members of the T1 e-sports team, including star player Faker.

Prior to the meetings, Huang casually dined at a famous Korean noodle restaurant in central Seoul with Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.

Later on Sunday, Huang threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game hosted by the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

Nvidia has maintained a close partnership with Doosan Group in the AI sector, particularly with its robotics arm, Doosan Robotics Inc.

After the ceremonial pitch, he visited a fried chicken restaurant in southern Seoul where he held a "chimaek meeting" -- a Korean term referring to fried chicken paired with beer -- with Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung in October.

This time, Huang was joined by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and other company executives, including SK hynix Inc. CEO Kwak Noh-jung.

SK hynix is Nvidia's key supplier of high-bandwidth memory, an advanced high-performance memory chip that serves as a crucial component in Nvidia's graphics processing units used to power generative AI systems.

khj@yna.co.kr
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