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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Expands South Korea Charm Offensive as AI Ties Deepen

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is strengthening the company’s relationship with South Korea through a highly visible public campaign that extends beyond boardrooms and semiconductor factories to television appearances and cultural events, reflecting the country’s growing strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem.

During his second visit to South Korea in less than a year, Huang is expected to meet executives from leading technology companies while also appearing on a popular television talk show and throwing the ceremonial first pitch at a professional baseball game. The unusual public engagement underscores Nvidia’s intention to deepen both business partnerships and public recognition in one of its most critical supply-chain markets.

South Korea occupies a central role in Nvidia’s AI strategy. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together supply the majority of the advanced memory chips required for Nvidia’s AI accelerators, while the country’s strengths in manufacturing, robotics, and industrial automation make it an attractive partner for the emerging era of physical AI, where artificial intelligence is embedded directly into factories, vehicles, and robots.

The relationship has become even more significant as geopolitical tensions and export restrictions have reshaped global semiconductor supply chains. With advanced chip sales to China facing increasing limitations, South Korea has emerged as an essential production, development, and deployment hub for next-generation AI infrastructure.

Nvidia is also expanding its footprint as a customer within the country, supplying hundreds of thousands of advanced AI processors to government initiatives and major corporations as South Korea pursues an ambitious national strategy to become one of the world’s leading AI powers.

Beyond semiconductors, Huang has highlighted robotics as an important area for future collaboration, suggesting that South Korea’s industrial capabilities and demographic challenges create an ideal environment for AI-powered automation solutions.

The visit demonstrates that Nvidia’s competitive advantage increasingly depends not only on technological leadership but also on cultivating deep strategic alliances across the broader AI value chain, with South Korea emerging as one of its most important global partners.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Reports Surging Demand for Blackwell Chips

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Saturday that demand for the company’s cutting-edge Blackwell AI chips is “very strong,” as the semiconductor giant deepens its partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to meet soaring global demand.

Speaking at an event hosted by TSMC in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Huang said Nvidia’s Blackwell platform — which integrates GPUs, CPUs, networking, and switching systems — requires an extensive supply of wafers and components. “We build the GPU, but we also build the CPU, the networking, the switches… there are a lot of chips associated with Blackwell,” he explained.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei confirmed that Huang had “asked for wafers,” but declined to disclose quantities. “TSMC is doing a very good job supporting us,” Huang said, emphasizing that Nvidia’s record-breaking success “would not be possible without TSMC.”

In October, Nvidia became the first company to surpass a $5 trillion market value, prompting Wei to call Huang a “five-trillion-dollar man.”

When asked about supply challenges, Huang acknowledged there would be “shortages of different things,” though memory makers SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron have expanded capacity to meet demand. Nvidia has already received next-generation memory samples from all three suppliers.

SK Hynix recently said it had sold out all production for 2026, forecasting a long-lasting chip “super cycle” driven by AI growth. Samsung is also in “close discussion” to supply HBM4 memory to Nvidia.

Huang reiterated that Nvidia has no active discussions to sell Blackwell chips to China, as U.S. restrictions remain in place.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says No Plans to Sell Blackwell AI Chips to China

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Friday that there are “no active discussions” about selling the company’s cutting-edge Blackwell AI chips to China, pushing back on speculation that a U.S.–China deal could soon allow limited exports.

The Blackwell processor, Nvidia’s most powerful chip for artificial intelligence applications, is currently banned from sale in China under U.S. export restrictions introduced by the Trump administration. Washington fears the hardware could accelerate Beijing’s military and AI capabilities.

“There are no plans to ship anything to China right now,” Huang told reporters during a visit to Tainan, Taiwan, where he attended a TSMC company event. “It’s up to China when they would like Nvidia products to go back to serve the Chinese market,” he added, implying that Beijing’s own policies are a barrier to reentry.

Rumors of a possible diplomatic breakthrough emerged last week when U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in South Korea, but no agreement has materialized.

Nvidia is still allowed to sell its H20 chips, a downgraded model tailored for the Chinese market, but Huang said China’s stance has left Nvidia’s market share for advanced AI chips at zero.

Asked about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s plan to build a semiconductor fabrication plant, Huang noted that “building advanced manufacturing like TSMC does is extremely hard,” but added that demand for such technology remains enormous.

Huang also clarified remarks reported by the Financial Times, denying that he had said China would win the AI race. “What I said was that China has very good AI technology,” he explained. “They have many AI researchers. The United States just has to move very, very fast because the world is competitive.”

The comments underscore Nvidia’s delicate position between U.S. export controls and China’s growing AI ecosystem, even as global demand for its chips remains red-hot.