Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) met with his counterpart at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) this week to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) chip supply constraints, a major challenge to the AI boom that got going last year.
The heads of the world’s two most valuable chip firms met in Taipei over dinner to discuss the Taiwanese firm’s role as producer of the Nvidia chips that power the majority of generative AI training systems worldwide, Huang told reporters in Taipei.
TSMC founder and prominent industry figure Morris Chang (張忠謀) also joined Huang’s dinner with CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) on Wednesday.
Photo: Bloomberg
Huang arrived in Taipei days after embarking on his first visit to China in four years, at a time when the US bars the shipment of Nvidia’s highest-end chips to a geopolitical rival.
While Nvidia has said little about that low-profile tour, Huang talked openly on Thursday about Taiwan’s and TSMC’s pivotal role in Nvidia’s business as well as the broader semiconductor sector.
“The single greatest challenge in AI, of course, is scaling the capacity of AI,” Huang said before heading into his company’s local Lunar New Year celebrations.
“We’re working very hard, TSMC, all of our supply chain partners here, are working very hard to keep up with the demand,” Huang said.
“This year is going to be a huge year,” he added.
EXPORT CONTROLS
Huang declined to answer questions about its China business. The Nvidia chief has previously warned that an escalation in US sanctions, designed to staunch the flow of AI training chips to China, could drive local firms to develop their own alternatives. That could harm US tech leaders in the long run.
The billionaire has name-checked Huawei Technologies Co (華為) — which last year alarmed Washington by including an advanced made-in-China processor in a smartphone — as a potential rival.
Nvidia, which more than tripled its market value last year thanks largely to its pivotal role in AI development, is up another 24 percent this year as investors bet on its sector leadership. It has designed versions of its semiconductors for China that it says are compliant with US restrictions.
The AI boom is helping prop up TSMC’s business. Last week, the company projected a potential rise in capital spending and robust revenue growth, helping trigger a sector-wide stock rally.
Huang on Thursday acknowledged the nation’s most critical industry.
“It’s a rebirth of the computer industry and that’s why Taiwan is so central to that,” he said.
“TSMC, the ecosystem of Taiwan system makers are all going to participate in this new era of computing,” he added.
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