When Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang arrived in South Korea, global attention turned to a viral “chimaek” (fried chicken and beer) dinner on October 30, featuring Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Group’s Executive Chair Chung Eui-sun.
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Yet, the spotlight shifted the following day to SK Group, particularly its memory arm, SK Hynix, which co-headlined a landmark artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure deal that analysts have called a strategic win.
The question hanging over the spontaneous Gangnam gathering was straightforward: why was SK Hynix, Nvidia’s largest supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI chips, conspicuously absent?
The absence of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won from the headline-grabbing “chimaek summit” was less a diplomatic slight than a matter of logistics and timing.
Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK-Hynix and chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during a seminar on carbon neutrality and energy policies at the headquarters of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul on September 14, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE
Sources familiar with the matter said the dinner was never meant to be a formal “Korea Inc.” meeting. Huang himself described it as simply wanting to “eat chimaek with friends”, not hold a press conference, and the informal venue could accommodate only a small circle.
