NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang gets rock star treatment in AI powerhouse Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan
CNN
—

When Nvidia overtook Apple to become the second-most valuable company in the United States this week, its CEO Jensen Huang was hailed like a rock star in his native Taiwan.

Wearing his trademark black leather jacket, Huang spoke to a packed stadium in the capital Taipei on Sunday, stressing Taiwan's importance in building the infrastructure supporting the artificial intelligence (AI) technology that has powered Nvidia's rise to the top.

“Taiwan is an unsung hero and an unshakable pillar of the world,” he said on stage, pointing to a chart listing the names of about 100 of the company's suppliers in Taiwan.

Whether he's throwing the first pitch at a baseball game or visiting a night market, Huang's every move is followed by swarms of fans, social media followers and TV cameras — a phenomenon Taiwanese media has dubbed “Gensanity.”

He's not the only celebrity CEO in town: other global tech names including AMD's Lisa Su (AMD), Intel's Pat Gelsinger (INTC) and Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon (QCOM) were also in town this week for the annual trade fair Computex.

COMPUTEX, which began as a trade show for Taiwan's burgeoning high-tech manufacturers nearly 40 years ago, is no stranger to the limelight: For decades, COMPUTEX was a low-key sourcing trade show for personal computers and other consumer devices.

That was before OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. Since then, The global race to create generative AI applications is driving a surge in demand for cutting-edge chips used in data centers to support these programs.

Neither Nvidia (NVDA) nor AMD, whose CEOs are cousins, manufactures their own semiconductors, instead outsourcing production of their most advanced chips to Taiwan's TSMC, which makes an estimated 90% of the world's most advanced chips.

This elevated the island's status as a major player in the AI ​​revolution, and Computex suddenly became the most closely watched event on the island.

“Tech CEOs are visiting Taiwan not only to strengthen relationships with Taiwanese chip foundries and server assemblers, but also to tap Taiwanese AI talent,” Christopher Miller, author of “The Wars for Chips: The Battle for the World's Most Important Technology,” told CNN.

CEOs of major global companies, especially consumer-facing companies, often downplay or avoid visiting Taiwan altogether to avoid backlash from Beijing, which claims it is its own democracy even though it has never ruled it, and has vowed to “unify” it, by force if necessary.

Huang regularly visits his hometown and drew attention to the island on this visit.

“Taiwan is one of the most important countries in the world and is the center of the electronics industry. The computer industry was built because of Taiwan,” he told local reporters during a visit to the night market.

The Chinese government has routinely denounced any suggestion of statehood for Taiwan, and while Huang's comments have become a hot topic on Chinese social media, China's state media has remained unusually silent on the matter.

“It's because they don't need us, but we need them,” posted a user on Chinese microblogging service Weibo.

The United States has imposed a number of restrictions on AI chip exports to China, and late last year Chinese tech giants such as Tencent were rushing to stockpile AI chips before those restrictions came into force.

Nvidia, which is reportedly developing new chips for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export controls, said the restrictions would result in “permanent lost opportunities” for U.S. industry.

Just before the start of Computex, Taiwan was surrounded by Chinese warships and fighter jets in its first major military drill in more than a year. The drills came just days after the island swore in its new president, Lai Ching-te, who is openly disliked by Beijing for defending Taiwan's sovereignty and separate identity.

The CEOs at Computex seemed to be ignoring years of political tension and pushing TSMC to expand outside Taiwan to diversify its production base.

“We do a lot of our manufacturing here,” AMD's Su told CNN. “Taiwan in particular is very important to the semiconductor ecosystem.”

Huang also highlighted his company's close ties to the island.

“We've been working in technology, engineering and business here in Taiwan for nearly 30 years, and we'll continue to do so,” he told CNN.

However, there are calls to revive semiconductor manufacturing in the United States due to semiconductor shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing strategic importance of the semiconductor industry due to competition between the United States and China.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act of 2022, aiming to increase domestic production of chips, which account for about 10% of the global supply, and reduce reliance on Asia for cutting-edge chips needed for artificial intelligence technology.

Intel CEO Gelsinger told CNN during a press conference that the company has seen a “resurrection of manufacturing” since the bill was signed.

“We have great respect for Taiwan's ecosystem, but the world needs a more geographically balanced and resilient supply chain, and I think that's starting to take shape,” he said.