(Corrects to Huang in second reference in paragraph 4)
SEOUL, June 1 (Reuters) – Shares in Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and other South Korean tech firms rallied on Monday, as expected meetings between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Korean executives boosted hopes of tie-ups in AI and robotics.
Chipmaker Samsung Electronics was also buoyed by data that South Korea’s semiconductor exports surged to a record high in May on the AI boom, helping the country’s total exports post their biggest rise in over four decades.
Huang is expected to visit South Korea later this week and meet LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and other Korean executives, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Nvidia also plans to hold a “Korean Partner Night” event on the sidelines of the COMPUTEX trade show in Taipei on Monday, which Huang and executives from chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix and other companies will attend.
Samsung Electronics shares rose 10.1% to a record close, while LG Electronics rose by its daily limit of 29.9% for the second straight session to an all-time high. Internet firm Naver rose 16% as its top executives are scheduled to meet with Huang on Friday.
“Jensen’s visit to Korea has a major implication. Nvidia needs Korea,” Jeff Kim, an analyst at KB Securities, said.
Nvidia said last year that it will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced AI chips to South Korea’s government and some of the country’s biggest businesses, including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group.
Separately, Samsung Electronics said on Friday it started shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip to customers, pulling ahead of rivals in distributing a new version of the product critical to AI data centers. Samsung’s customers include major AI players like Nvidia.
Samsung has been valued at a discount to SK Hynix due to its weaker competitiveness in HBM, but the news appears to be supporting share price gains, BNK Investment & Securities analyst Lee Min-hee said.
($1 = 1,514.1400 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Hyunjoo Jin, Heekyong Yang and Jihoon Lee Editing by Ed Davies and Lincoln Feast.)
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