By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) -Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Thursday he was confident that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a good conversation during a much-anticipated meeting in South Korea earlier in the day.
Huang was speaking as he arrived at a restaurant in Seoul for Korean-style chicken and beer with Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.
“I have every confidence that the two presidents had a very good conversation. It doesn’t have to involve anything that I do,” said Huang, who emerged from the restaurant and handed out snacks to excited fans gathered outside.
The technology tycoon said he was looking forward to meeting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday and that his company and the country had many announcements to make.
NVIDIA CHIPS A MAJOR STICKING POINT BETWEEN US, CHINA
Nvidia is navigating geopolitical tensions that have hit its sales in China. Huang’s comments followed face-to-face talks between Trump and Xi.
In a reversal of remarks Trump gave the previous day, the U.S. leader said he did not discuss Nvidia’s state-of-the-art Blackwell AI chip with Xi. Sales of the high-end chip have been a major sticking point between the two sides due to Washington’s export controls.
Hundreds of people, including media, swarmed the area around the restaurant, eager to get a glimpse of Huang, whose tech giant on Wednesday became the world’s first $5 trillion company and who is known for mingling with fans and posing for selfies.
The three executives shared fried chicken and beer, a popular Korean after-work pairing known as “chimaek”, at Kkanbu Chicken, a local restaurant chain in Gangnam, an upscale part of Seoul.
The word “kkanbu” translates loosely to “close friend” or “trusted partner”, a bond made famous globally by Netflix’s “Squid Game”, in which it symbolizes loyalty between allies.
The meeting of the technology executives comes ahead of an expected announcement by Huang, involving potential deals with South Korean companies that he said would “please U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea”.
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Joe Bavier)
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