Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang praised and lightly urged his main Taiwanese suppliers to produce more products to help drive strong demand for artificial intelligence, concluding a visit to the island of his birth where he was mobbed by adoring fans at every step.
Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain Saturday night outside a Taipei restaurant where he hosted suppliers for a “trillion-dollar dinner” named after the market capitalizations of the companies participating in the event, Huang said it would be another good year for business.
“TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot of wafers,” he said with a smile, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest maker of advanced chips for artificial intelligence applications.
“TSMC is doing a great job, they’re working very, very hard. We have a lot of demand this year,” he added after taking a photo with a smiling TSMC CEO CC Wei.
“In the next 10 years, TSMC’s production capacity will likely increase by more than 100%, so this is a very substantial expansion in the next 10 years.”
Wei did not answer reporters’ questions.
TSMC said last month that capital expenditures could rise 37% this year to $56 billion, and that capital expenditures would increase “significantly” in 2028 and 2029 given artificial intelligence needs.
Huang, who moved to the United States as a child, is greeted by legions of adoring fans whenever he returns to Taiwan. Local media dubbed him “the people’s dad” and breathlessly covered his every move.
Jensen Huang co-founded California-based Nvidia in 1993. Last year, the company became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market capitalization, continuing its rapid rise to firmly occupy the core position of the global artificial intelligence revolution.
In Taipei, he expressed concerns about the supply of memory chips that support artificial intelligence workloads amid a production crunch.
“We need a lot of memories this year,” he said. “I think the whole supply chain is going to be challenged this year because there’s so much more demand.”
Huang regularly walked out of a dinner attended by more than two dozen executives, including Liu Yang, chairman of Foxconn, Nvidia’s largest server maker, to greet his fans and sign autographs.
“We have a lot of partners in Taiwan. Nvidia wouldn’t exist without Taiwan. There’s magic on this island. The companies here have extraordinary technology, they have an incredible culture,” he said when asked how he feels about his movie-star fame each time he visits.
