Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been pictured enjoying the affordable and tasty delights of Vietnamese street food. He also visited and contributed prizes to a LAN party event in the capital, Hanoi. With the weekend’s fun over, it will be down to business on Monday, as Huang is scheduled to meet up with Vietnamese tech companies and authorities. We previously reported that the Nvidia CEO is in Vietnam to establish a base and develop the country's semiconductor industry.
Jensen Huang is getting a reputation for enjoying life's simpler and more affordable things and harking back to a lifestyle that clashes with the Silicon Valley CEO archetype. Back in May, we reported that the billionaire Nvidia CEO was mingling in the busy night markets of Taipei , where he picked up some tasty street food treats. The previous year, he was captured 'video-bombing' some bemused karaoke singers and making a Lady Gaga song request . When he’s back in the States, he also isn’t shy of visiting Denny’s Diner, where Nvidia’s golden egg was hatched, and he even made himself busy serving green team staff during a recent after-work event at the comfort food chain.
This weekend in Vietnam, VNExpress quotes a government diplomat who gushed that Huang is “skipping luxury dinner parties at hotels and high-end restaurants.” He explained that “Jensen chooses street food with flavors and experiences that are hard to match anywhere else.”
If you want to follow in Huang’s footsteps, the source says that the Nvidia CEO was pictured at a sidewalk restaurant on Luong Ngoc Quyen Street (Hanoi). Additionally, he stopped at a restaurant on Hang Non Street to enjoy beef pho and drink coconut water. He also went to a Goan hotpot restaurant in Hang Thiec and drank Giang coffee on Nguyen Huu Huan Street, according to the source report.
Huang didn’t just spend his time eating and drinking in Hanoi this weekend. A Redditor shared some images and information about the Nvidia boss turning up at a “small LAN party.” In the images, you can see Huang on stage at one of the Vikings eSports Arena locations in Hanoi (there seem to be five of these internet cafe-style venues in the city). He posed for photos with various LAN party attendees, and it also looks like he took part in some kind of awards ceremony.
According to the social media post, Huang contributed prize money to the eSports events that were going on. The iconic PC tech leader was also “funny and sociable.” Meanwhile, it looks like he substituted a fabric jacket for his signature leather one , or RTX was off, someone may have quipped. Hanoi is still pretty hot and humid at this time of year, so a leather jacket probably isn't comfortable in a non-air-conditioned space.
What transpires from Monday's business and government talks remains to be seen. One source suggests Vietnamese semiconductor companies like FPT, Vingroup, and Viettel will be in attendance, along with state ministers, city and science park administrators, and so on.
Nvidia has already invested $250 million in Vietnam, according to Reuters . It is noted that Vietnam already has large chip assembling factories in place, including one of Intel’s biggest facilities. The country could gain further importance as trade tensions between the US and China continue.
