Jensen Huang hands out red bean buns to Tokyo crowd in his latest culinary adventure

Jensen Huang has become known for his love of street food.<p class="copyright">Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images</p>

Jensen Huang has become known for his love of street food.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

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Jensen Huang visits Tokyo, unveils AI factory plan with Noetra Corp, shares dinner with tech leaders, and hands out red bean buns.

  • Jensen Huang visited Tokyo and dined at a traditional izakaya.
  • Afterward, he handed out red bean buns to a crowd.
  • The Nvidia CEO has a history of trying local cuisines on business trips.

Jensen Huang came to Tokyo bearing gifts: a slew of AI and robotics partnerships for Japan's tech industry, and red bean buns for the crowd.

On Wednesday, the Nvidia CEO visited a red-lantern izakaya, a traditional Japanese bar, in Tokyo's Kanda district, where a crowd gathered outside hoping to glimpse "kawa-jan" — "leather jacket" — as he's affectionately known in Japan.

jensen huang hands out red bean buns

The Nvidia CEO turned snack distributor in Tokyo.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

The trip's centerpiece, announced Thursday, is a partnership with Noetra Corp, the state-backed AI developer formed by SoftBank, NEC, Sony, and Honda, to build a 27,500-GPU "AI factory" billed as the world's first national AI infrastructure for robotics.

Huang also swung by a former Sega arcade in Akihabara to thank the gaming giant whose $5 million lifeline he said saved a struggling Nvidia in the 1990s, and visited the chipmaker's Build-a-Claw event.

jensen huang holds a build a claw

Huang at the Build-a-Claw event in Tokyo.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

However, it was the after-hours itinerary that stole the show. Huang was spotted having dinner at Yakiton Sankichi, a chain bar popular for after-work drinks, where Japanese outlet Diamond Online reported the CEO of the world's most valuable company tucked into offal hotpot and a "baka-mori" — roughly, "stupidly big" — mountain of fries.

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His tablemates: the top execs from Kioxia, Tokyo Electron, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumitomo Electric, Taiyo Yuden, and Ajinomoto, per Bloomberg.

Jensen Huang giving a toast

Huang dined with the heads of Japan's top chip suppliers at Yakiton Sankichi, an izakaya near Kanda Station.

Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

When dinner finished, Huang emerged to the waiting crowd and pressed red bean buns, a popular Japanese snack, into outstretched hands.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on a Tokyo street.

Huang was surrounded by fans in Tokyo, as he often is when checking out local food.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

For Huang, eating like a local has become a tradition on his business trips. In May, he was spotted eating fried bean sauce noodles on a Beijing sidewalk after accompanying President Donald Trump on his state visit to China. "It's so good," he told a crowd of onlookers.

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Over the years, Huang has been photographed at street food spots in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and South Korea, where his fried chicken dinner with the heads of Samsung and Hyundai was crashed by photographers last year.

jensen huang having dinner

Huang dined on Korean barbecue with tech leaders in Seoul in June.

POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Wherever Nvidia announces its next AI factory, the local restaurants should probably start prepping now.

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