As Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, visits South Korea and meets with key industry figures, anticipation is building for the "Samsso Meeting" scheduled for the evening of June 5, featuring Korean barbecue and soju. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the oldest participant, is expected to play a pivotal role in enhancing collaboration between the business community and Nvidia.
According to industry sources, Huang will arrive in South Korea on June 5 and visit T1 Basecamp, operated by T1, a joint venture between SK Group and Comcast, where he will engage with prominent professional gamers, including Lee Sang-hyeok, known as "Faker."
Later that evening, he will move to a barbecue restaurant in Hongdae for the Samsso Meeting, joined by Chey, Lee Hae-jin, global investment officer of Naver, and Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group.
During his previous visit to South Korea in October, Huang held a meeting with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun at a chicken restaurant, indicating his intent to showcase close ties with major Korean companies through varied gatherings and menus.
Nvidia and SK Group are recognized for their strong partnership in the memory sector, particularly with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and artificial intelligence (AI) data center initiatives. Naver is significantly investing in Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) and supercomputers for its sovereign AI projects, while LG Group is enhancing its collaboration with Nvidia in AI foundation models and physical AI.
As the participants of the Samsso Meeting are revealed, attention is focused on who will grill the meat and prepare the "somaek," a mix of soju and beer. In South Korean corporate culture, it is customary for the youngest member to take on these tasks.
Given that Chey, born in 1960, is the oldest among the attendees, he is likely to be exempt from these duties. Huang, born in 1963, is the second oldest, followed by Lee, born in 1967, and Koo, the youngest at 1978.
This has led to speculation among netizens and online communities about the amusing sight of Koo, leading the country's fourth-largest conglomerate, grilling meat and making somaek.
However, industry insiders suggest that the restaurant may provide special service for grilling to ensure a smooth meeting, as it typically does not offer this service. This would be a special accommodation for an event attracting national attention.
Moreover, given the mutual respect among the business leaders, it is likely that the preparation of somaek will be a collaborative effort. There are also suggestions that Huang, who has a good understanding of Korean culture from his frequent visits, might take the initiative to prepare somaek himself.
Following the Samsso Meeting, Huang is not expected to visit SK Group separately, as Chey has already met with him twice in Taiwan earlier this month to focus on strengthening the partnership between SK Group and Nvidia.
On June 1, Chey attended the "GTC Taipei 2026" event with SK Hynix President Kwon Oh-jung, where they listened to Huang's keynote speech and held a private meeting with Nvidia executives. They discussed new AI memory technologies, including HBM, and strategies for expanding supply.
The next day, Chey met Huang at the "Computex 2026" venue, where they toured the SK Hynix exhibition together, reviewing key AI memory technologies and products.
Huang left a humorous yet urgent message on a wafer of SK Hynix's seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4E), saying, "Please make more," and wrote, "I love SoCamm" on a 192GB SoCamm (LPCAMM)2 product, drawing attention.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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