Dinner with beer and fried chicken of 3 tycoons shook the Korean market

On the evening of October 30, at a popular fried chicken restaurant called Kkanbu Chicken in Gangnam district (Seoul, South Korea), people witnessed an unbelievable scene when 3 of the most powerful figures in Asia sat together at a table drinking beer and eating fried chicken.

Jensen Huang (CEO Nvidia), Lee Jae-yong (Chairman of Samsung Electronics) and Chung Eui-sun (Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group) - 3 names with total assets of nearly 200 billion USD, raised their glasses and enjoyed the famous "chimaek" dish (a combination of chicken - fried chicken and maekju - beer).

The ordinary moment quickly went viral. Crowds surrounded the restaurant, holding up their phones to record the billionaires laughing and talking with their arms around each other, while Jensen Huang, known for his friendliness, happily brought out food for his fans.

“I love fried chicken, I love beer, and I love it even more when I get to enjoy it with friends,” he said with a laugh.

Within hours, videos from the meeting went viral on social media, sparking a new “fever” called “Jensanity”. But the effect didn’t stop there.

Bữa tối với bia, gà rán của 3 ông trùm làm rung chuyển thị trường Hàn Quốc - 1 — The three billionaires enjoyed familiar dishes such as cheese balls, cheese sticks, boneless chicken and fried chicken (Photo: AFP).

From chicken dishes to stock waves

The very next morning (October 31), the Korean stock market opened its trading session with a group of "strange" stocks suddenly skyrocketing.

Not tech or semiconductor stocks, but fried chicken stocks.

Shares of Kyochon F&B, one of South Korea’s largest fried chicken chains, soared as much as 20 percent at one point. Cherrybro Co., a poultry processor, even soared to the limit, rising 30 percent. Even Neuromeka, a maker of chicken-frying robots, posted impressive gains.

Kkanbu Chicken, the restaurant where the dinner took place, is a private, unlisted business. But chain spokesman Jung Kyongman said sales across the chain had soared. "Many stores sold out of fried chicken within hours," Jung said. "I was really surprised. I didn't expect so many people to come."

This is a familiar phenomenon in the Korean market, where individual investors (often called "ants") tend to flock to stock crazes tied to cultural, political events or famous figures, regardless of the fundamentals of the business.

A meal of “chimaek” (short for chicken and maekju) by three billionaires has become a hot investment topic, enough to push up the stock prices of a seemingly unrelated industry. It shows the terrible power of social contagion and the personal influence of business leaders in the digital age.

But if investors were just looking at the fried chicken, they might have missed the real story: a trillion-dollar AI bet is taking shape.

Behind the "chimaek" party

This "viral" dinner was more than just a moment of entertainment or a mere promotional event.

Jensen Huang wasn't in Seoul by accident. He was there to attend the APEC CEO Summit of the Asia- Pacific region. And more importantly, he was there to cement one of Nvidia's most important technology partnerships.

His two deskmates—Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Chairman Chung Eui-sun—are not just the heads of South Korea’s largest chaebols (family-owned conglomerates). They are also key partners and customers of Nvidia in the global AI race.

The very next day, at the conference, the information was officially confirmed. Jensen Huang announced plans to supply more than 260,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) to Korean companies. The destination of these chips is Samsung and Hyundai, along with other giants such as Naver and SK.

Simply put, while the world is talking about fried chicken, three tycoons are celebrating a deal that will cement the future of South Korea's semiconductor, auto and robotics industries, with Nvidia's GPUs at its heart.

Even the gifts carried symbolic messages: Jensen Huang gave the Samsung and Hyundai chairman a bottle of 25-year-old Japanese whisky Hakushu and a $4,000 DGX Spark minicomputer, Nvidia's new product.

The accompanying card read simply: “For partnership and the future of the world.”

A dinner - many layers of meaning

This event is also a testament to the change in business culture.

In South Korea, chaebol leaders like Lee Jae-yong and Chung Eui-sun usually maintain a low-key, conservative image and avoid public appearances in ordinary places. It is almost unheard of for them to sit "close to the window" at a noisy fried chicken restaurant, comfortably clinking glasses in front of hundreds of cameras.

It’s a new corporate culture message: open, approachable, and respectful of international partners. That partner is Jensen Huang – not just Nvidia CEO, but also a “star” of the technology industry.

Unlike traditional billionaires, he is known for his dynamic style, close to fans: signing laptops, computer chips, even fans' T-shirts.

At Kkanbu Chicken, he continued to show that spirit, personally handing out gimbap, cheese sticks, and banana milk to the crowd outside. When the meal was over, he rang the “golden bell”—the restaurant’s signal that he would pay the entire $1,800 bill for everyone that night.

“This is the best way to enjoy chimaek,” Huang said before leaving to cheers.

The dinner, from a media and financial perspective, was a subtle piece of soft diplomacy – both a perfect PR push and a tacit declaration of a US-Korea technology alliance in the AI era.

Jensen Huang not only connected with two Korean tycoons, but also strengthened the position of Nvidia - a company that just reached a capitalization of 5,000 billion USD, far surpassing its technology rivals.

The fried chicken stock craze, while a short-term emotional effect, reflects a deeper reality: When trillionaires sit down together, anything they touch, including a plate of fried chicken, can turn to gold.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/bua-toi-voi-bia-ga-ran-cua-3-ong-trum-lam-rung-chuyen-thi-truong-han-quoc-20251103151753266.htm