Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warns of global chip supply crunch after SK Hynix dinner

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang appears to have struck another significant technology partnership over fried chicken and beer.

On Sunday evening, Huang dined at Kkanbu Chicken, a Seoul restaurant, alongside SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and SK Hynix chief executive Kwak Noh-jung. By Monday morning, the two companies were prepared to announce what they had agreed.

SK Hynix confirmed that Chey and Huang would brief media together on Monday, following an initial report by South Korean outlet Newsis. Huang offered reporters a preview without disclosing specifics, saying:

"We're working across many industries from AI supercomputers to CPUs to new PCs and robotics. So we are here to plan, and maybe tomorrow we have some announcements."

A deal spanning multiple product lines

The breadth of Huang's remarks — covering AI supercomputers, CPUs, new PC formats and robotics — pointed to a cooperation agreement that could extend across several product lines rather than being limited to a single supply arrangement. Full details were expected when the two executives addressed media jointly on Monday.

A stark warning on global chip supply

Huang's most pointed remarks of the evening, however, may have had nothing to do with SK at all. When asked about the state of the global memory market, he offered little comfort to an industry already under considerable strain from surging artificial intelligence demand.

"The whole industry supply chain, everything from wafers to packaging to silicon photonics, everything's in short supply because the demand is so high. It is going to persist for several years."

The assessment covered the full technology stack — not only finished memory chips, but also the raw materials, manufacturing processes and interconnect technologies that underpin them.

Huang's signature Seoul diplomacy

Sunday's dinner was not Huang's first high-profile chimaek meeting in the South Korean capital. During his visit in October, he held a similar gathering with executives from Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor at the very same Kkanbu Chicken restaurant.

That occasion attracted considerable media attention and has since become something of a shorthand for the Nvidia chief's approach to conducting business in South Korea: informally, over food, and with concrete outcomes that tend to materialise swiftly afterwards.