Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers remarks next to U.S. President Donald Trump at an ‘Investing in America’ event in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2025.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is headed to South Korea, one of the company’s most important markets, ahead of meeting there between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
For Huang, it’s expected to be a trip that mixes business and politics with a meeting with Trump on the cards as well as execs from South Korea’s biggest firms such as Samsung and SK Group.
Market watchers will also be looking out for clues as to Nvidia’s future in China.
Here’s what might happen this week with Nvidia.
Nvidia’s key suppliers
South Korea is home to one of Nvidia’s most important suppliers: SK Hynix. The company develops so-called high-bandwith memory, or HBM, a specific type of semiconductor that goes into Nvidia’s high-end AI systems.
Among the execs that Huang is expected to meet is SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Yonhap reported. SK Group is SK Hynix’s parent company.
The meeting could be a chance to discuss future HBM development. Rival Samsung also develops HBM but its product has not been certified by Nvidia for use. A discussion about the progress on Samsung’s HBM could be on the cards as Huang said Tuesday he would meet with the company.
Infrastructure and business deals
Huang has been on a world tour this year visiting countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. More often than not, Nvidia has announced infrastructure deals during these trips, outlining how the tech giant will supply its coveted graphics processing unit-based products to data center projects.
On the sidelines of the Nvidia developers’ conference held in Washington on Tuesday, Huang said his company is partnering with with Samsung and autoamker Hyundai “in many ways” including investing in “AI factories” — a term used to describe data centers.
SK Telecom, another subsidiary of SK Group, is currently building data centers in South Korea. Nvidia is planning to supply its chips to SK Group, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Other areas where Nvidia may announce plans could be driverless cars and robotics, a major area of focus for South Korea’s tech industry.
Trump meeting and China
And for Huang, it’s not just about business. Geopolitics will be a big focal point as Huang’s trip coincides with a planned meeting between Trump and Xi in South Korea.
Trump called Huang “an incredible guy” during a speech at the APEC Summit in South Korea. Separately, Trump said he will meet with the CEO on Wednesday.
This week could be crucial for providing insights on Nvidia’s future in China. The tech giant was previously banned from exporting its AI chips to China until earlier this year when the Trump administration ended the restrictions. While Nvidia is permitted to export its downgraded H20 chip to China, Beijing has reportedly pushed local companies not to purchase it. Instead, China is pushing its local firms to buy domestic Nvidia alternatives.
Trump on Wednesday signaled that Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processors could be up for discussion with Xi.The Blackwell chip is Nvidia’s most advanced product and is not currently allowed to be exported to China.
“Trump wants to do business with China and he considers almost everything is business including Nvidia,” George Chen, partner and co-chair of the digital practice at The Asia Group, told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We may see China wants some sort of guarantee that the U.S. will not add location trackers into U.S. chips to be sold to China … The U.S. may also have its own demands in return, hence Nvidia now becomes one of the bargains for the two presidents in Korea.”
Chinese regulators in July raised concerns about the security of Nvidia chips in July. The world’s second-largest economy is a lucrative market for Nvidia and being shut out has already cost the tech giant billions of dollars in lost sales. Any opening up of the China market will be positive for the chip maker.