The unofficial meeting between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun at a ‘Kkanbu Chicken’ restaurant in Seoul’s Samseong-dong goes beyond a simple friendly gathering. It symbolizes the AI-driven mega-transformation of South Korea’s core industries.
By personally suggesting the venue, CEO Huang imbued the meeting with the meaning of ‘AI Kkanbu’ (partner/ally). This move represents a strategic commitment to not only accelerate technical collaboration on Samsung’s HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) but also to establish NVIDIA’s AI platform as the core partner for Hyundai Motor’s future mobility sectors, including autonomous driving and robotics.
This pivotal moment is interpreted as a major turning point, where the Korean industry—built on the twin pillars of memory semiconductors and future mobility—seeks to secure global AI market leadership through an ‘AI alliance’ with NVIDIA.
The Meaning of ‘Kkanbu Chicken’: A Strategic Message
The choice of ‘Kkanbu Chicken’ over a typical high-end restaurant is fascinating. Proposed directly by CEO Jensen Huang, the venue carries the meaning of ‘close friend’ or ‘partner,’ a term that gained global recognition through the Netflix hit Squid Game.
We should not view this meeting as merely a casual get-together of three corporate giants. By selecting this location, Huang was, in effect, publicly proclaiming Samsung and Hyundai Motor as his ‘closest partners in the age of AI’—his ‘AI Kkanbu.’
This transcends a simple product supply relationship; it is a strategic declaration. It signifies that NVIDIA, the absolute powerhouse in AI chips, is meeting with the leaders of Korea’s most critical industries to position Korean companies at the forefront of global technology development. It is a symbolic scene demonstrating that the two pillars of the Korean economy—semiconductors and mobility—are becoming key partners in the global AI revolution. While the meeting was superficially informal, in content, it is evaluated as the inception of the most official technological alliance that could shape the future of Korean industry for the next decade.
Samsung Electronics and the HBM Alliance: The Memory Core to Power NVIDIA GPUs
The most urgent and pragmatic item on the agenda would undoubtedly have been the discussion on cooperation regarding Samsung Electronics’ HBM. The current AI market revolves around NVIDIA GPUs, and HBM is the critical component that maximizes the performance of these GPUs.
The Technical Gambit of HBM3E 12-Stack
Samsung Electronics is on the verge of mass-producing its HBM3E (5th generation) 12-layer product. HBM maximizes data transfer speed by vertically stacking chips. Stacking 12 layers is not merely about increasing capacity; it represents an extreme elevation in stacking difficulty. The core challenge is the stable supply of high-performance, low-power, high-capacity memory optimized for NVIDIA’s latest GPUs.
If NVIDIA gives its final approval and decides to adopt Samsung’s HBM on a large scale, it will create immense synergy for both Samsung Electronics’ Foundry (contract manufacturing) and Memory businesses. It is reasonable to conclude that CEO Jensen Huang’s visit went beyond exploring potential collaboration, focusing instead on finalizing ongoing technical validation and discussing the ultimate strategy for supply expansion.
A Joint Blueprint for Future HBM4 Development
Furthermore, it is highly likely that in-depth discussions on HBM4 were held. HBM4 is slated to incorporate advanced technologies like hybrid bonding to further integrate the memory with the GPU. From NVIDIA’s perspective, close collaboration with Samsung Electronics from the HBM4 development stage is essential to maximize the performance of its next-generation GPUs. In an era where the GPU and memory must act as a single unit, a meeting between the CEOs of both companies to set a joint development direction signals a commitment to co-creating the future standard for AI hardware.
Hyundai Motor Group and the Mobility AI Vision: The Dawn of the GPU-Powered Vehicle
While the collaboration with Samsung Electronics is about the ‘heart that processes data (HBM),’ the cooperation with Hyundai Motor Group concerns the ‘body that makes AI act (Mobility).’
Autonomous Driving Core: NVIDIA DRIVE
Hyundai Motor Group already has a strategic partnership with NVIDIA, utilizing the autonomous driving platform ‘NVIDIA DRIVE.’ An autonomous vehicle is not merely a car; it is a high-performance computer on wheels. Recognizing road conditions and processing vast amounts of data in real-time is the role of NVIDIA’s GPU.
Chairman Chung Eui-sun’s presence at the meeting underscores that the cooperation with NVIDIA is not just about component supply but forms the AI platform foundation for Hyundai Motor Group’s advancement of autonomous driving technology. Moving toward Level 4 and Level 5 fully autonomous driving requires massive training data and ultra-high-performance computing capabilities. This meeting is a strong signal that Hyundai intends to leapfrog global competitors by integrating its future mobility vision with NVIDIA’s powerful AI infrastructure.
Robotics Collaboration: The Future of Humanoids and AI Factories
Discussions on robotics collaboration were also highly probable. Hyundai Motor Group has positioned the robotics sector as a future growth engine, exemplified by its acquisition of Boston Dynamics. AI learning and inference capabilities are essential for robots, especially humanoids, to interact with humans and perform complex tasks.
NVIDIA possesses robust technology in robot AI, including the ‘Omniverse’ simulation platform for robot training and the ‘Jetson’ development kit. This gathering suggests Hyundai Motor Group’s intention to deeply embed NVIDIA’s AI technology across its entire operation—from smart manufacturing processes to the development of future humanoid robots—thereby building an ‘AI-based Manufacturing and Robotics Ecosystem.’
🇰🇷 The Birth of the K-AI Coalition: Synergy of the Three Giants Leading the Global Market
This ‘Chicken and Beer Summit’ of the three giants signifies more than a business meeting. It heralds the birth of the ‘K-AI Coalition,’ where Korea’s core industries of semiconductors and mobility forcefully merge onto a single AI platform.
Samsung Electronics will cement its role as a key partner in the AI hardware ecosystem by supplying HBM optimized for NVIDIA GPUs. Hyundai Motor Group will lead the future mobility market by applying this powerful AI computing capability to autonomous vehicles and robots. In turn, NVIDIA secures both the world’s highest-level AI semiconductor expertise and the future application market through these two companies.
Ultimately, Jensen Huang’s ‘Kkanbu’ message is a powerful accolade and a strategic proposal: “The future AI revolution cannot be completed without these two Korean giants.” They will move beyond individual contracts, such as HBM supply scale or autonomous driving cooperation levels, to establish a truly strategic alliance—sharing AI technology roadmaps and jointly investing. We should remember that the new growth engine for the Korean economy began at this ‘AI Kkanbu’ meeting.