NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang arrived at Seoul Gimpo Airport at around 1:00 p.m. on June 5. His first stop was the “T1 Base Camp” gaming internet café, operated by esports club T1, where he met with team captain Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) and all five starting players of the “League of Legends” team. Faker is widely regarded as the greatest player in “League of Legends” history, and Huang had previously shouted his name at a public event. He has long made no secret of his love for Korean gaming culture and has said, “Without PC games, PC bangs (gaming internet cafés), and esports, there would be no NVIDIA today.” That evening, Huang was scheduled to have dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant about 400 meters from the T1 internet café with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin to discuss cooperation in areas such as AI semiconductors, robotics, embodied intelligence, and AI data center infrastructure.
However, before the “surprise” had even officially appeared, South Korea’s capital market had already experienced turbulence. On June 4, under profit-taking pressure from expectations being met, stocks that had been heavily hyped by the market — the so-called “Jensen Huang concept stocks” — collectively plunged: LG Electronics fell 16.43% in one day, SK Telecom fell 13.26%, Naver fell 4.99%, and multiple Korean robotics concept stocks fell between 6% and 12%. At the same time, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were dragged down by Broadcom posting lower-than-expected sales guidance, and the KOSPI closed down 1.84% for the day. The decline expanded further in early trading on the 5th. KOSPI 200 futures once fell 5%, triggering a program trading halt mechanism that suspended trading for 5 minutes. As of 8:23 a.m., the KOSPI index had widened its decline to over 6%, Samsung Electronics fell over 6%, and SK Hynix fell over 8%.