Starting on the 5th, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang will begin a wide-ranging visit to Korea. Huang is expected to meet with heads of major domestic conglomerates, researchers, and startups to expand the AI ecosystem.

According to the industry on the 4th, after wrapping up the ‘GTC Taipei 2026’ and ‘Computex 2026’ schedules in Taipei, Taiwan, Huang will arrive in Korea on the afternoon of the 5th. His visit to Korea comes seven months after last October.

The focus of this trip is expected to be collaboration between Nvidia and Korean companies in the field of physical AI. As a manufacturing powerhouse, Korea has multiple firms with semiconductor and AI technologies as well as robot hardware and production capabilities, and Nvidia is paying attention to them as optimal partners.

Starting on the 5th, Huang has a Korea schedule packed with related activities. For his first dinner in Korea, he is expected to dine with the leaders of major domestic companies, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Naver Chair Lee Hae-chan, and Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won. A ‘samgyeopsal gathering’ at a restaurant in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, is considered likely. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun is also said to be coordinating details to attend. When he visited last October, Huang met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun at a chicken restaurant for a ‘gganbu gathering’.

These companies share the commonality of being leading domestic players not only in semiconductors and AI but also in physical AI and robotics, which Nvidia highlights as a core growth driver. Leveraging know-how accumulated through home appliance manufacturing, LG Group is focusing on actuator development and on LG Electronics, which is centering its efforts on the AI home robot ‘LG Cloid’; LG affiliates are concentrating on the robot business. Doosan is taking active steps in key semiconductor materials and back-end processes, and it is jointly building next-generation robot-dedicated runtime software with Nvidia. Hyundai Motor is collaborating with the Nvidia autonomous driving platform, and there is speculation that cooperation could extend to humanoid robots, smart factories, and AI factories. SK hynix is strengthening the ‘AI alliance’ through AI memory solutions such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) mounted on Nvidia AI accelerators. Naver intends to strengthen cooperation with the Nvidia AI Factory platform.

Nvidia is also expected to broaden engagement with the Korean game industry and AI and robotics startups. Huang is then expected on the 7th to meet NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin to discuss collaboration in games and AI. He is also reportedly set to meet the management of Krafton, which has declared a transition to an ‘AI-first’ company and is expanding into physical AI.

On the morning of the 8th, a roundtable is scheduled at The Shilla Seoul with heads of Korean robotics and AI startups. Upstage, which is developing a sovereign large language model (LLM), as well as Nota and VesselAI, are expected to attend. Huang has said, “Korea is a very important part of the Nvidia ecosystem,” and said he is considering investment in the Korean robotics industry. He is then likely to visit the AI Institute and Robotics Lab at Seoul National University, and possibly the offices of LG Group, Hyundai Motor, and Naver in sequence.

Engagement with the general public in Korea is also planned. For the first time, Huang will appear on the tvN variety show ‘You Quiz on the Block’. He is also slated to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Doosan Bears home game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 7th. Huang will take the mound wearing a Doosan Bears uniform bearing No. 93, which signifies the Nvidia founding year (1993). Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won will serve as the ceremonial batter, wearing a uniform with No. 96, following the Doosan founding year (1996).