Nvidia CEO appears on "You Quiz on the Block"
Expresses strong affection for Korean business leaders and gamers
Says AI will help close the technology gap
![Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appears on the tvN variety program "You Quiz on the Block." [tvN]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/11/news-p.v1.20260611.a23d1f6fbe00439180a86009fb8c21df_P1.jpg)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung as "incredibly great world-class leaders" during an appearance on the tvN variety program "You Quiz on the Block" that aired Wednesday.
When asked which of the three chairmen he was closest to, Huang said the answer was easy. "I want all of them to succeed," he said.
"Those three companies are very lucky to have them as leaders," he added. "I want SK to succeed, and I want Samsung, LG Corp, Hyundai Motor and Naver to succeed. They know I sincerely want them to succeed. I do my best to help them get there."
Huang also recalled how his relationship with Korea began — with a letter from the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee in 1996, which led to his first visit to the country.
Inspired by Lee Kun-hee's vision of connecting South Korea with broadband internet and hosting the world's first video game olympics, Huang said he traveled to Seoul and walked through the Yongsan Electronics Market, handing out business cards and pitching Nvidia's products in person.
"The Korean technology industry started with the internet, and Nvidia grew during the same period," he said. "Our lives and histories are very closely intertwined."
He also expressed strong affection for the country, saying Korea has always held a special place in his heart. "Without Korea's great gamers, it would have been very difficult for Nvidia's technology to become a global phenomenon," he said.
Huang said esports was a Korean export that the world came to love. "That journey started almost 25 years ago with PC bangs and esports," he said.
Huang also touched on the early struggles of Nvidia's CUDA platform, which launched in 2006 to harsh reviews, and named the ability to endure failure as a key virtue for success.
CUDA is Nvidia's proprietary software platform that has since made companies around the world dependent on Nvidia's graphics processing units.
"Twenty years is a long time to hold on to a project nobody believes in, but if you believe in the conclusion, you have to see it through," he said. "After 25 years of waiting, we ultimately achieved explosive growth."
"To be great, you have to go through pain and failure," he added. "Failing and coming back, failing and coming back again — that experience builds resilience and character."
Asked about the AI era, Huang said AI is easy while computers are hard. "In the past, computers could only be used by people who learned programming, but today computers are so smart that you just have to tell them what you want. AI will close the technology gap," he said.
This was Huang's first appearance on a domestic or international variety talk show. The episode was recorded June 5.
joze@heraldcorp.com
