NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang Goes All-In on China and Taiwan

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, delivers a speech at the New Year’s celebration at the NVIDIA Shanghai branch. [Photo = Collected from social media X by Chinese market research company CN Wire]

Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA and also known as the “godfather of AI,” is accelerating his activities in China and Taiwan.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency and other sources, on the 20th, CEO Jensen Huang, who arrived in Taiwan on a chartered jet, was spotted eating local delicacies such as oyster omelets and ice cream at the Ningxia Night Market in Taipei that evening. According to local media, he reportedly engaged in casual conversation and photo-taking with the locals.

This trip marks the fourth visit to Taiwan by CEO Jensen Huang, and NVIDIA has not officially disclosed the reason for the visit. Taiwanese media speculate that he will attend the annual Advanced Packaging Supply Chain Partner Conference hosted by Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, and the closing ceremony of NVIDIA’s Taiwan branch is scheduled for the 24th.

Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, who turned 60 this year and is originally from Taiwan, has been popular with locals every time he visits Taiwan by enjoying local cuisine at public night markets and eateries, according to the Taiwan Central News Agency. He is expected to further strengthen the cooperation system with Taiwanese companies, particularly TSMC, during this visit to Taiwan.

In addition, it was reported that CEO Jensen Huang visited three NVIDIA branches in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China last week before heading to Taiwan. An employee of the NVIDIA Shenzhen branch reportedly informed Chinese media outlets, including Zhejiang Daily, that CEO Jensen Huang attended the branch’s New Year’s celebration on the 19th and “gave a speech and presented awards to the employees.”

This is his first visit to China in five years following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. In fact, he has been trying to visit China since last year, but his plans have repeatedly fallen through. In particular, there had been expectations last June that he would visit China to meet with executives from major Chinese IT companies such as Tencent and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, but this plan ultimately fell through.

Important markets for NVIDIA include Taiwan and China, which comprise about half of its revenues. Taiwan accounted for 25.9% of NVIDIA’s sales in the fiscal year 2023 (February 2022 to January 2023), while China (including Hong Kong) accounted for 21.5%.

However, as the U.S. expanded the scope of semiconductor export restrictions to low-spec chips last October, NVIDIA faced concerns over sales losses. As a result, starting in the second quarter of this year, NVIDIA reportedly plans to mass-produce chips for export to China with specifications adjusted to match the level of U.S. sanctions.

Last month, CEO Jensen Huang hinted at a conference in Singapore that NVIDIA will continue to supply new products to the Chinese market while fully complying with U.S. trade regulations. Last month, he visited four Asian countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan, showing increasing interest in the Asian region.

As one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global ChatGPT and AI boom last year, NVIDIA’s stock price hit an all-time high last week on the New York Stock Exchange, almost reaching $600. The AI’s optimism was boosted when TSMC announced last week that its sales are expected to increase by more than 20% this year.

Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times (FT) on the same day, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also known as the “father of ChatGPT,” is reportedly discussing investment options with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and TSMC for the development of its own AI semiconductors. This is interpreted as an effort to reduce its dependency on NVIDIA for AI semiconductors and to develop and produce AI semiconductors internally. According to the FT, large amounts of these semiconductors are required to create new AI models.