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.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS