[Digital Today reporter Lee Ho-jung] Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, on his third day in South Korea, met Krafton Chairman Jang Byung-gyu and NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin on Saturday afternoon near Sinnonhyeon Station in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Both meetings used PC bangs as the venue, focusing on ways to cooperate in games and artificial intelligence (AI).

Huang arrived at a PC bang near Sinnonhyeon Station at around 1:20 p.m. and met Jang, Jang Tae-seok, head of the PUBG IP Franchise, and Krafton Chief AI Officer Lee Kang-wook. Huang greeted nearby citizens before the executives waiting at the entrance and then began the meeting with a handshake with Jang. Shaking hands with Jang Tae-seok, he also mentioned, "the person who made PUBG."

The meeting is known to have covered humanoid robots, including physical AI, and cooperation in games based on Nvidia’s AI PC brand, RTX Spark, as key agenda items.

Krafton and Nvidia’s cooperative relationship has built up over several years. Krafton added 'PUBG Ally,' which lets players enjoy games with AI, to its flagship title 'PUBG: Battlegrounds,' and applied the 'Smart Joy' feature, in which characters think and act like real people, to its life simulation game 'inZOI.' Cooperation in games also extended to physical AI. In April last year, Krafton’s key executives visited Nvidia’s headquarters in California and discussed the direction of cooperation on next-generation technologies, including robots. Early this year, it established physical AI specialist unit 'Ludo Robotics' and appointed Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han as CEO of the U.S. headquarters and Lee Kang-wook as head of the South Korea unit.

After meeting Krafton executives, Huang also held a prize raffle event for pre-invited gamers and influencers inside the PC bang.

Asked about how the meeting came together, Jang said, "It started when CEO Kim Chang-han visited Nvidia headquarters in April last year and met CEO Huang," adding that it was part of continuing meetings since then. On Huang’s intention in visiting a PC bang, Jang said, "Nvidia is a company that has been rooted in games for a long time," and interpreted it as Huang wanting to confirm those roots at a PC bang at a time when games are moving to AI.

Jang also linked the meaning of the event to RTX Spark. "RTX Spark is a chip where games and AI meet," he said, adding that Krafton also cooperated for 1 to 2 years in line with that to create PUBG Ally. He added, "It was like an event marking the starting point of a new platform where games and AI meet."

After finishing the Krafton schedule, Huang moved across the street to Portal PC Bang and met NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin, Vice President Bae Jae-heon, Senior Vice President Lee Sung-gu, and game fans.

NCSoft held a 'Surprise Live' event at the PC bang, with key developers of MMORPG 'Aion 2' in attendance, introducing future development directions and update plans. Huang and Kim made a surprise appearance on a live broadcast streamed online and exchanged views on the game industry and the direction of AI technology development.

On stage, Huang asked fans, "Is everyone enjoying Aion 2, who's the best?" to lead the atmosphere. He added, "Nvidia GeForce and South Korean e-sports have grown together," and said, "I love you, thank you." Huang also handed an autographed GeForce 'RTX 5090' graphics processing unit (GPU) to a fan at the venue through a draw.

Cooperation between NCSoft and Nvidia is not the first. 'Aion 2' applied Nvidia’s 'DLSS Frame Generation' and 'Nvidia Reflex' technologies at launch. NCSoft’s artificial intelligence subsidiary NC AI is also set to attend a closed-door meeting for domestic robot and AI startups hosted by Nvidia on Sunday.

Huang also met the T1 e-sports team players at a PC bang in Seoul’s Mapo district on June 5, the first day of his visit. The series of contacts with South Korea’s game industry centered on PC bangs during this visit shows Nvidia sees the South Korean games and AI market as a key venue for cooperation.