NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made a surprise appearance at an influencer event for KRAFTON's 'PUBG: Battlegrounds' held at a Internet cafe near Sinnonhyeon Station in Seoul's Gangnam District on the 7th. On his third day in Korea, CEO Huang met with KRAFTON Chairman Chang Byung-gyu, raffled off RTX 5090 graphics cards, and emphasized the importance of collaboration between the gaming and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors.

Chairman Chang personally hosted and interpreted for the event. KRAFTON Chief AI Officer (CAIO) Lee Kang-wook and PUBG General Manager Jang Tae-seok were also present but did not take the stage. CEO Huang arrived around 1:30 p.m. and stayed for about 15 minutes, taking selfies and signing autographs for fans before departing at 1:45 p.m.

CEO Huang expressed his affection for Korean gaming fans, stating, "Korea is the first country to export esports to the world." He then offered an RTX 5090 Founders Edition as a raffle prize, writing "Love Korea" on the box. For fans who did not win the raffle, he promised an "I Owe You" card, saying, "I love you all, and I owe you." The world's first RTX Spark laptop was also awarded to two gamers through a raffle.

During the event, CEO Huang introduced NVIDIA's recently unveiled Arm-based PC superchip. Stating that they are "reinventing the PC for the first time in 40 years," he revealed that the chip, codenamed 'N1X,' took three years to develop. He explained that it runs graphics, DirectX, OpenGL, CUDA, Windows, and AI all on a single chip. This product, which NVIDIA calls 'RTX Spark,' was designed in collaboration with MediaTek by combining Blackwell GPUs with Arm-based Grace CPUs. It is set to launch this fall in Windows PCs from manufacturers including Microsoft, Dell, HP, ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI.

Chairman Chang mentioned 'PUBG Ally,' an AI companion co-developed by KRAFTON and NVIDIA, stating, "Today, you are experiencing the very starting point where gaming and AI meet." PUBG Ally is a collaborative player character (CPC) powered by an on-device small language model based on NVIDIA ACE technology, with a user test scheduled for the Battlegrounds Arcade in early 2026.

In a briefing following the event, Chairman Chang drew a line regarding the possibility of discussing new business ventures, stating, "This was certainly not the situation to discuss business matters." However, he attached significance to the meeting as "an opportunity to reaffirm the cooperative relationship between NVIDIA and KRAFTON as both shift their focus from gaming to AI," emphasizing that gaming has emerged as a stage for validating AI hardware and models beyond its role as mere content.

Chairman Chang noted that while NVIDIA is a company with deep roots in gaming, it has now transitioned significantly toward AI. He interpreted CEO Huang's visit to the Internet cafe as a desire to personally confirm those roots.

Chairman Chang cited NVIDIA's 'RTX Spark' chip and KRAFTON's 'PUBG Ally' as the two pillars representing this collaborative trend. He described the RTX Spark as a "chip where gaming and AI meet," noting that KRAFTON has been collaborating on this for the past one to two years. The result is PUBG Ally, which Chang described as the "starting point where gaming and AI meet."

Regarding the background of the meeting, Chairman Chang stated, "The two companies have been in constant contact since KRAFTON CEO Kim Chang-han met with CEO Huang last April." He explained that this event was arranged to coincide with NVIDIA's visit to Korea, and that it came to fruition because CEO Huang expressed a strong desire to "see gamers at a Internet cafe." He added that he understood CEO Huang had simply stopped by during an event already being held by PUBG gamers.

Chairman Chang attributed NVIDIA's repeated interest in Korean gaming companies to Korea's competitive edge in the industry. He noted that while Korea is chasing the top three globally in the AI sector, it appears to be further ahead in gaming, making it natural for NVIDIA—which is transitioning from gaming to AI—to seek out Korean gaming firms. He predicted that as companies like KRAFTON continue to utilize NVIDIA's technology and chips, the period of ongoing dialogue between the two will continue.