Jensen Huang, the leather jacket-wearing CEO of Nvidia, spent four days in South Korea this past week doing something most tech executives never attempt: becoming a genuine pop culture figure in a foreign market while simultaneously locking down critical supply chain partnerships.
The visit, which ran from June 5 to June 8, included an appearance on the wildly popular Korean talk show “You Quiz on the Block” and a ceremonial first pitch at a Doosan Bears baseball game. Between those crowd-pleasing moments, Huang held meetings with Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Hyundai to discuss AI data centers, robotics, and autonomous driving.
Why South Korea, why now
This was Huang’s second trip to South Korea in just seven months. His previous visit came in late 2025, and the frequency tells you everything about how important this country is to Nvidia’s business.
South Korea is home to the world’s most advanced manufacturers of high-bandwidth memory chips, the specialized components that make Nvidia’s AI GPUs actually work. Samsung and SK Hynix are essentially the only companies on the planet that can produce HBM at the scale Nvidia needs.
At the APEC Summit in October 2025, Nvidia announced a partnership involving over 250,000 GPUs earmarked to bolster South Korea’s AI infrastructure. Huang’s discussions during this latest visit reportedly focused on HBM chips, AI data center expansion, robotics, and autonomous driving technologies.
The soft power play
His appearance on “You Quiz on the Block,” one of South Korea’s highest-rated variety shows, was a deliberate move to build brand recognition with the Korean public. The Doosan Bears first pitch on June 8 served the same purpose.
A dedicated tracking website set up to follow Huang’s South Korea itinerary attracted over 70,000 visitors, a staggering number for what amounts to a CEO’s travel schedule. Korean stock prices connected to Nvidia’s local partners also responded positively during the visit.
What this means for investors
Nvidia’s stock has been one of the primary barometers for AI sentiment across all asset classes over the past two years. The deepening Korea partnership specifically strengthens Nvidia’s supply chain resilience. If Nvidia can secure reliable HBM chip supply from both Samsung and SK Hynix, it reduces the risk of production bottlenecks that could slow GPU shipments.
Nvidia is investing diplomatic capital and executive time into South Korea at a pace that suggests major deals are either in progress or imminent. The commitment of over 250,000 GPUs announced at APEC was just the opening move. Huang doesn’t visit a country twice in seven months for maintenance calls.
Nvidia’s strategy of building deep, multi-layered relationships with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Hyundai could give it preferential access to next-generation HBM technology. Nvidia’s reliance on Korean memory manufacturers means any disruption to that supply chain would hit Nvidia disproportionately hard, a vulnerability Huang appears to be managing through personal relationships and public goodwill rather than just contracts.