(Bloomberg) — For one Friday night, Hongdae wasn\u2019t Seoul\u2019s trendiest neighborhood. It was Jensen Huang\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n
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The Nvidia Corp. chief executive landed in Seoul and promptly set the district ablaze \u2014 not with hyper-powered graphic-processing units, but with pork belly, fried chicken and a gathering so unusual that it felt like an AI-era summit disguised as a chaotic night out.<\/p>\n
Around a sizzling Korean barbecue table sat a literal who\u2019s-who of South Korea\u2019s tech corporate royalty \u2014 from SK Group, LG Group and Naver Corp. They were busy sharing somaek, the classic, dangerous blend of soju and beer, samgyeopsal and laughter with the man at the center of the global artificial intelligence boom.<\/p>\n
The evening capped a whirlwind day that showcased why Huang has become something closer to a rock star than a tech executive.<\/p>\n
He kicked off Friday speaking to reporters, casually answering questions and dropping important news for the chip industry: all three major memory titans, Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc., had been cleared to supply the most cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory required for Nvidia\u2019s next-generation Vera Rubin platform. For a country that dominates advanced memory manufacturing, it was a significant endorsement.<\/p>\n
Then came a pilgrimage to Nvidia\u2019s spiritual roots. Huang met Faker, Korea\u2019s legendary esports deity. Huang has long portrayed gaming as the foundation upon which Nvidia was built. \u201cKorea was the origin of esports,\u201d he told a roaring crowd, as he fittingly gifted Faker with the RTX 5090 \u2014 the holy grail of consumer gaming hardware. Photos were snapped, fans celebrated and social media lit up.<\/p>\n
But the real spectacle began after sunset.<\/p>\n
As word spread that Huang was dining at a local joint cheekily named Hey Bro, It\u2019s Me!, crowds gathered outside, spilling over the sidewalks and swallowing street corners. Shoppers, tourists and die-hard tech enthusiasts stood shoulder to shoulder hoping for a glimpse.<\/p>\n
Huang, ever the showman, did not disappoint.<\/p>\n
Stepping out to greet the crowd, he waved, cheered and handed out food and drinks to reporters and bystanders. The energy and ambience was more \u201cK-pop idol fan-meet\u201d than a get-together of some of the world\u2019s most influential tech titans.<\/p>\n
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The Korean business leaders found themselves in an unfamiliar setting \u2014 the famously buttoned-up chaebol leaders were navigating uncharted terrain. Executives who typically spend their lives avoiding public scrutiny suddenly found themselves wading through a claustrophobic sea of smartphones.<\/p>\n
LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, the youngest of the elite cohort, was spotted wielding barbecue tongs and scissors like an awkward grill master. Billionaire SK Chairman Chey Tae-won \u2014 arguably Korea\u2019s most media-savvy tycoon \u2014 brilliantly weaponized the chaos. Seizing the PR moment, Chey, together with Huang, began handing out a local snack playfully branded \u201cHBM Chips\u201d a reference to SK Hynix\u2019s flagship memory products.<\/p>\n
As for the bill? The honor fell to Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, largely because he was the only business leader at the table who owned a digital payments company. Rhythmic chants of \u201cNaver! Naver! Naver!\u201d echoed through the restaurant.<\/p>\n
When the barbecue wrapped, the party migrated to a second round of Korean fried chicken, with Huang\u2019s wife, Lori, joining the tech barons.<\/p>\n
Yet, beneath the grease, smoke, and corporate camaraderie lay an intensely serious purpose. Nvidia is preparing to launch several major products next year, and Huang is dependent on Korea\u2019s industrial prowess to actually get them to market. The alliance between Nvidia and Korea\u2019s tech champions has quietly become one the most critical of the AI era.<\/p>\n
Still, for one evening, the business of AI gave way to pure street theater.<\/p>\n
Hongdae witnessed an unprecedented alignment of stars: rival tycoons sharing food and drinks commonly associated with ordinary Koreans, a gaming legend meeting an AI pioneer, and thousands of people turning out just to watch a guy who designs microchips eat dinner.<\/p>\n
Only in 2026 could a man selling graphics processors command a street presence on par with a pop star.<\/p>\n
And the Jensen show isn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Huang is expected to pop up at a Doosan Bears baseball game, where he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch \u2014 a symbolic nod to Nvidia\u2019s deepening push into robotics via partnerships with industrial heavyweights.<\/p>\n
Monday will bring a sobering return to reality. The schedule is packed with formal meetings with the bosses of LG, Naver and Hyundai Motor Co., alongside a group of students as well as ambitious robotics and AI startup founders, including Upstage.<\/p>\n
By then, Hongdae will have returned to its usual rhythm. The restaurants will clear their tables and the smoke from barbecue grills will drift away.<\/p>\n
But for one memorable night, a semiconductor executive managed to make chips, chicken and barbecue the hottest ticket in town.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — For one Friday night, Hongdae wasn\u2019t Seoul\u2019s trendiest neighborhood. It was Jensen Huang\u2019s stage. Most Read…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,902,235390,18973,235387,131517,235388,18009,75995,111,139,1042,69,235389,164085,4790,145],"class_list":["post-464490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-bloomberg","tag-hongdae","tag-jensen-huang","tag-korean-barbecue","tag-korean-fried-chicken","tag-lg-group","tag-micron-technology-inc","tag-naver","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nvidia","tag-nz","tag-one-friday-night","tag-sk-group","tag-south-korea","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}