Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presents League of Legends star Faker, also known as Lee Sang-hyeok, with a GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card during a visit to T1 Base Camp in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Thursday. [POOL PHOTO] [Yonhap]
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presents League of Legends star Faker, also known as Lee Sang-hyeok, with a GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card during a visit to T1 Base Camp in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Thursday. [POOL PHOTO] [Yonhap]

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang kicked off his visit to South Korea by meeting professional gamer Faker, also known as Lee Sang-hyeok.

Huang met Faker and other T1 players Thursday afternoon at the T1 PC bang in Mapo-gu, Seoul. He presented Faker with a GPU and praised South Korea as the ideal market for esports, crediting Nvidia's graphics processors as a driving force behind the country's gaming culture.

"Korea invented esports and created a culture of watching it," he said. "Korean gamers chose the best GPU to win — and that was Nvidia's GPU."

Huang gave Faker a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU bearing his autograph. Faker returned the gesture with a signed team jersey. The two then posed for photos with the rest of the T1 roster.

Huang also handed out vouchers for the RTX Spark gaming laptop to two visitors at the PC bang.

"I told Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella we needed to reinvent the PC experience, and the RTX Spark is what came out of that new design," Huang said. "The RTX Spark is a new generation of PC that spans laptops, desktops and more."

Later in the day, Huang is expected to sit down with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin for an informal dinner of "samgyeopsal," or grilled pork belly, washed down with soju. The group is expected to discuss AI semiconductors, physical AI and AI infrastructure.


ko@heraldcorp.com