Madison Huang, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Omniverse and Robotics at Nvidia. Photo courtesy of LinkedIn
Naver is strengthening its collaboration with Nvidia to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics capabilities. The move is seen as a strategy to secure a competitive edge through core technology partnerships amid intensifying global competition for AI and robotics leadership.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 28th, Madison Huang, senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics at Nvidia and the eldest daughter of Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, will meet with senior Naver officials this week to discuss strategic cooperation between the two companies.
Nvidia has recently begun expanding its AI ecosystem in Korea in earnest, hosting the developer event “Nemotron Developer Days Seoul” in the Korean capital. Nemotron is Nvidia’s open-source AI model series. Huang, who visited Korea in conjunction with the developer event, met with robotics researchers at Seoul National University and delivered a lecture to students.
Kim Yu-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, is expected to attend the meeting with Huang. However, there is a strong possibility that Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, who recently returned from a business trip to Japan, will also join.
The meeting is expected to focus on cooperation related to Nvidia’s AI infrastructure used by Naver. In particular, discussions will likely center on Nvidia’s digital twin and simulation platform “Omniverse” and its potential integration with Naver’s cloud, robotics, and digital twin businesses. The Omniverse platform is a service tool for developing physical AI applications, including robotics simulations.
Earlier this year, during a conference call on last year’s earnings, Choi announced plans to conduct a proof of concept (PoC) for outdoor robot delivery using Nvidia’s Omniverse platform this year. “I cannot disclose specific details about our robotics collaboration with Nvidia, but the software developed by Naver will not be offered exclusively through Naver Cloud. We are discussing a direction that leverages Nvidia’s Omniverse platform,” Choi said at the time.
The meeting is also expected to address expanded cooperation using Nvidia’s next-generation AI model, Nemotron. Earlier, Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied research at Nvidia, met with Sung Nak-ho, head of hyperscale AI at Naver Cloud, on the 22nd to discuss cooperation on enhancing the successor model to Naver Cloud’s “HyperCLOVA X.” Naver and Naver Cloud are among Nvidia’s flagship partners, set to receive 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) under the agreement reached last November between the Korean government and Nvidia.
Madison Huang, the daughter of CEO Jensen Huang, oversees physical AI and Omniverse-related businesses within Nvidia and is known to be deeply involved in key decision-making. The industry views her as effectively expanding her role as a next-generation leader, driving cooperation and strategic coordination with major partners. She is reported to have visited Korea a month ago ahead of CEO Jensen Huang’s visit, pre-coordinating schedules and cooperation discussions with officials from major companies.