Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, gathered again in New York on Sept. 28 (local time). It was about two months after the San Francisco AI Summit in July.
Although the occasion was to celebrate Huang's award, the two tycoons reaffirmed their AI semiconductor alliance with Nvidia through words of encouragement.
The Korea Society, a Korea-U.S. friendship non-profit organization, held its annual gala at Cipriani South Street in New York on this day and presented Huang with the 2026 Van Fleet Award. The award recognized his leadership in the AI semiconductor industry and his contribution to Korea-U.S. economic cooperation. The award was established to honor Gen. James A. Van Fleet, who served as commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the Korean War.
Bringing up the connection that his late father and former chairman, Lee Kun-hee, received the same award in 2006, Lee said, “There is no person more suitable for this award than Jensen.” He also recalled meeting Huang for the first time at CES about 25 years ago. As common ground between the two, Lee cited that both companies are “all in” on AI, and that both have daughters named Madison.
He drew laughter by adding, “The third is that we both love the Galaxy Z Fold 8.” Samsung Electronics added to the occasion by playing a celebratory video for the award on the billboards in Times Square, New York, on Sept. 27-28.
Chey, who delivered the toast, directly used a metaphor to describe the cooperative structure between the two companies. He compared it to Korea's “ppalli-ppalli” (hurry-hurry) culture, saying, “Every time I meet Jensen, his first question is, 'Can you make it faster?'” He continued, “Nvidia designs the brain, and SK creates the memory.” The expression referred to the relationship where SK Hynix High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is equipped in Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).
Chey said, “Jensen stands at the forefront of the Korea-U.S. alliance built 70 years ago by General Van Fleet,” adding, “Now, that frontline is not a battlefield, but a data center.”
He also quoted Huang's favorite expression, “The more you buy, the more you save,” saying, “I sincerely believe this phrase.” Raising his glass, Chey said, “I hope our partnership grows faster than GPU demand.” Chey received the award in 2017, following his late father and former chairman Chey Jong-hyon (1998).
In his acceptance speech, Huang said, “There is no company and no people better at building factories than Koreans,” adding, “Now you are building factories of intelligence, and we are building them together.”
He then assessed, “Right now, we are experiencing the largest buildout of industrial infrastructure in human history.” He also recalled young Koreans being passionate about StarCraft and Nvidia 25 years ago. Furthermore, he praised the Samsung Galaxy as “the brightest phone in the world.”
