SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley to discuss potential collaboration in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence semiconductors. Their meeting, described by industry sources as a reinforcement of their existing partnership, took place over “chimaek” – a popular Korean combination of fried chicken and beer.
The meeting occurred on February 5th at 99 Chicken, a Korean-style fried chicken restaurant in Santa Clara, California, a short distance from Nvidia’s corporate headquarters. This location is reportedly one of Huang’s preferred dining establishments.
During their discussion, the executives are believed to have focused on supply strategies for HBM4, the next generation of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) expected to power Nvidia’s forthcoming AI accelerator platform, codenamed Vera Rubin, which is anticipated to launch in the latter half of this year.
SK hynix has previously informed investors that the company is on track to begin mass production of HBM4 according to the timelines agreed upon with their clients, highlighting its crucial role as a key memory partner to Nvidia.
Industry insiders suggest that the meeting likely encompassed broader collaboration in AI data centers, including server memory modules like SOCAMM (Single Open Card Memory Module) and NAND flash memory.
Since September of last year, Chairman Chey has taken direct oversight of SK Group’s North American operations, serving as chairman of both SK Americas and SK hynix Americas. SK Americas functions as the group’s regional center for forging strategic alliances within the global AI ecosystem.
This meeting also served to compensate for Chey’s prior absence when Huang visited Seoul in October during the APEC summit, where Huang met with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chair Chung Euisun.
