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Shares in Naver jumped 16 percent and SK Telecom rose 12 percent Monday after reports emerged that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would visit Naver's headquarters during his upcoming trip to South Korea and that SK Telecom had been named a key Nvidia partner.
Naver closed at 271,500 won (about $181) on the Kospi, up 16.03 percent from the previous session. SK Telecom finished at 112,200 won, a gain of 11.53 percent.
Market participants reacted to reports that Huang would visit Naver's 1784 headquarters in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on June 8. Reports also circulated that he would meet Naver founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin on June 5.
Expectations grew that the visits would lead to deeper cooperation between Naver and Nvidia on AI technology and physical AI. Investors bet that a partnership between a domestic platform company and a global AI chipmaker could significantly boost corporate value.
At the GTC Taipei event in Taiwan, Naver Cloud was introduced as an AI cloud partner within Nvidia's DSX AI factory ecosystem during Huang's keynote address.
Naver was also named a partner for Nvidia's own reasoning large language model, Nemotron 3 Ultra.
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SK Telecom was also highlighted in Huang's keynote as a key partner in manufacturing and physical AI.
In a press release, Nvidia said SK Hynix is using Nvidia Omniverse to build a digital twin of its semiconductor manufacturing facility as part of a 2030 roadmap for autonomous chip fabrication. Nvidia added that it is working with SK Telecom to validate the Nvidia Agent Toolkit for manufacturing-specific physical AI.
This marked the second time SK Telecom has appeared in a Jensen Huang keynote, following GTC 2026 held in San Jose in March.
Digital twins replicate real factories and equipment in virtual environments, allowing companies to simulate and pre-validate the effects of process changes and equipment layouts — a core technology in physical AI. SK Telecom showcased its factory digital twin technology at GTC 2026, where it was introduced as a strategic Nvidia partner alongside global robotics and AI companies including Boston Dynamics.
"Through our collaboration with Nvidia, we confirmed that manufacturing digital twins can evolve beyond simple visualization into a platform where AI understands and optimizes large-scale 3D data," said Jo Ik-hwan, SK Telecom's head of physical AI. "We will continue to expand our role as a technology partner across semiconductor manufacturing and other industries."
The appearances come ahead of Huang's visit to South Korea this week. He previously visited the country in October last year for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Gyeongju.
ygmoon@heraldcorp.com
