On the evening of October 30, 2025, the street in front of Kkanbu Chicken in Seoul’s Samseong-dong began to fill with more than a thousand people.
Word had spread that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung were meeting there.
As the appointed time approached, the crowd grew so large that vehicles could no longer pass. The three men parked nearby and cheerfully walked to the small fried chicken restaurant.
When the world’s top industrial leaders appeared at a humble neighborhood eatery, the crowd erupted in disbelief and excitement.
They took a four-person window table and ordered chicken and draft beer. Surrounded by citizens and reporters, the three raised their glasses of soju-beer cocktails (somaek) and shared what Koreans fondly call “friendship in a glass.”
Jensen Huang occasionally took selfies with nearby customers, while Jay Y. Lee signed an autograph for a young boy with the words:
“Be a good son to your parents.”
Seeing global tycoons casually enjoying fried chicken and beer left the crowd stunned.
When **Jensen Huang—worth 1.7 trillion USD—**licked the spicy sauce off his fingers, and **Jay Y. Lee—worth 11 billion USD—**carefully picked the bones clean, people murmured,
“At the end of the day, we’re all just people.”
“If even they can eat like that, maybe I should live a little more humbly.”
Euisun Chung, though a conglomerate chairman himself, played the role of the youngest at the table—setting utensils for the group and drawing laughter.
Then, he picked up a hefty “Six-Pack” drumstick and took a big bite.
That night, Kkanbu Chicken branches nationwide were flooded with calls—orders for the “Six-Pack Chicken” poured in, and the staff screamed with delight.
The table was soon covered with half-empty plates: Six-Pack Crispy Chicken, Boneless Fried Chicken, Cheese Sticks, and more.
Then, unexpectedly, Jensen Huang stood up holding two chicken plates.
He walked briskly outside, balancing them perfectly, and playfully served cheese sticks to the crowd—a nod to his past working as a waiter at a Denny’s restaurant during college.
“This is delicious!”
He grinned, prompting cheers from the crowd.
“Any NVIDIA investors here?”
“Me! Me!”
“That’s why Korea is so rich!”
Laughter rippled through the street.
Jay Y. Lee looked around and quipped,
“But I see a lot of iPhones here!”
More laughter followed.
That night, the three men became “Kkanbu”—a Korean word for close partners or buddies.
The term became globally known from Squid Game’s line, “We’re Kkanbu, aren’t we?”
It’s said that Madison Huang, Jensen Huang’s daughter, was moved by the warmth of that word and suggested “Kkanbu Chicken” as the venue for the AI Partnership gathering.
For the world’s industrial titans to meet at a fried chicken joint and form a friendship for “a better future”—
that alone became a story, a moment that would go down in history.
From Kkanbu to GeForce: A Friendship Forged in History
After the meal, the trio appeared together on stage at the GeForce Gamer Festival, recreating the heroic pose from K-Pop Demon Hunters and earning the nickname “The Kkanbu Trio.”
To the roaring audience, Jensen Huang declared:
“You created eSports. You made PC gaming a global phenomenon.”
“Everything started here—in Korea.”
Back in 1996, Huang received a handwritten letter from a man he’d never met.
It read:
“I want every Korean citizen to be connected through high-speed internet.
Video games will drive technological progress.
We will host the world’s first video game Olympics and create a new culture for humanity.
To realize this dream, I need your help.”
The sender was the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee.
At the time, Huang was a 34-year-old engineer running a struggling four-year-old startup.
No one understood what a graphics card was; the market was cold, and sales were dismal.
That letter gave him faith and courage in his vision of the GPU.
In 1999, NVIDIA launched the world’s first GPU, the GeForce 256, marking a turning point.
Samsung began supplying high-speed DRAM for graphics, initiating a partnership that would shape the next era.
When StarCraft hit Korean shelves in 1998 and combined with NVIDIA GPUs and broadband internet, PC gaming exploded.
Over 10,000 PC cafés sprang up across the nation, glowing through the night with “GeForce” logos everywhere.
Huang later recalled:
“Korea was the country that saved NVIDIA.”
By 2000, eSports had become institutionalized, birthing professional gamers and leagues.
Lee Kun-hee’s vision—written in that 1996 letter—had come true.
On stage at the festival, Huang shouted:
“To the eSports legend, Faker! And to the great performers, LE SSERAFIM!”
He invited both teams up to symbolize the unity of Korean culture and technology.
The Golden Key to the AI Era
The man who once sold GPUs door to door in Seoul’s Yongsan market returned in 2025 as one of the most powerful CEOs on Earth.
“I came back to celebrate Korea’s new generation,”
he said.
“Tomorrow, you’ll see.
I promised President Lee Jae-myung I wouldn’t spoil the surprise.
But my friends are part of it.
Together, we’ll do incredible things for Korea’s future.”
The next day, at the APEC Summit in Gyeongju, NVIDIA, the Korean government, and major corporations announced a landmark agreement:
“We will supply 260,000 GPUs to Korea.”
50,000 each for the government, Samsung, SK Group, and Hyundai; 60,000 for Naver Cloud—
a total of 260,000 GPUs, at a time when they were in global shortage.
Analysts called it “the golden key to the AI era.”
“The equipment that will make Korea’s AI research 1,000 times faster than MIT.”
“Equivalent to buying ten F-22 fighter jets,” joked another.
These GPUs would power industries, robotics, and autonomous infrastructure—forming the seeds of a new global AI ecosystem, aptly named “Seed Factory.”
“Korea is now the only country in the world whose government directly purchases AI chips.
It is a symbolic step proving Korea’s role as a true global AI leader,”
said Huang.
From the Miracle That Continues in Korea
Soon after, NVIDIA uploaded a 3-minute-16-second tribute video titled
“From the Miracle that Continues in Korea.”
It chronicled Korea’s industrial rise from the 1950s, its StarCraft and PC café revolution, the global wave of K-pop and K-dramas, and NVIDIA’s heartfelt gratitude.
“It’s an honor to be part of the miracle that continues—in Korea.”
At the chicken shop that started it all, Huang gifted his two friends signed plaques.
They read:
“To our partnership and the future of the world!”
That message, perhaps, applies to all of us.
As the tribute video reminded us:
We are living through the greatest transformation since the Industrial Revolution—the age of AI.
Change brings pain and conflict, but there is only one path forward:
to cooperate, not compete,
to stay close,
and to build a better future together.
Simple to say, yet harder than ever to achieve.
Postscript
Thanks to this legendary evening, Kkanbu Chicken earned a brand value no money can buy.
Perhaps every October 30, for the next ten years, the restaurant should hold a “Kkanbu Trio Day”—
serving chicken at 2025 prices, exactly as they were that night:
- Crispy Six-Pack: ₩23,000
- Boneless Crispy Chicken: ₩22,000
- Sweet Boneless Chicken: ₩23,000
- Cheese Sticks: ₩13,000
- Onion Rings: ₩15,000
A small tribute to the night when friendship, history, and the future of technology met over fried chicken and beer.
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By Sunjae Park
Editor, Korea Insight Weekly
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