TAIPEI, Feb 1 — Nvidia chief executive officer (CEO) Jensen Huang praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for artificial intelligence, capping a visit to the island of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step.
Speaking at an impromptu media conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant late yesterday, where he had hosted suppliers for a "trillion-dollar dinner", named after the market capitalisation of those firms attending, he said this would be another good year for business.
"TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot of wafers," Huang said, laughing, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest producer of advanced chips used in AI applications.
"TSMC is doing an incredible job, and they are working very, very hard. We have a lot of demand this year," he added after taking pictures with a beaming TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, who did not answer reporters' questions.
"Over the next 10 years, TSMC will likely increase their capacity by much more than 100 per cent, and so this is a very substantial scale-up in the next decade," Huang said.
Last month, TSMC said capital spending could jump as much as 37 per cent this year to US$56 billion (RM220.7 billion), and would increase "significantly" in 2028 and 2029 given AI demand.
Huang, who emigrated to the United States as a child, is met by a throng of adoring fans wherever he returns to Taiwan. Local media, which refer to him as "the people's dad", breathlessly report on his every move.
Huang co-founded California-based Nvidia in 1993. Last year, it became the first company to breach US$5 trillion (RM19.71 trillion) in market value, continuing a meteoric rise that has firmly positioned it at the heart of the global AI revolution.
In Taipei, he expressed concern about the supply of memory chips that support AI workloads amid a production crunch.
"We need a lot of memory this year. I think that the entire supply chain is challenging this year because demand is so much more," Huang said.
He periodically stepped out of the dinner, attended by two dozen executives, including contract-electronics maker Foxconn's chairman Young Liu, whose company is Nvidia's biggest server maker, to greet his fans and sign autographs.
"We have so many partners here in Taiwan. Nvidia would not be possible without Taiwan. There's magic in this island.
"The companies here have extraordinary technology; they have incredible culture. I am really proud of Taiwan," Huang said, when asked about how he felt about his movie star-like fame whenever he visits.
Huang arrived from China on Thursday (January 29) and is expected to leave tomorrow.
