Nvidia Corp has added hundreds of staff in China this year to enhance its research capabilities and focus on new autonomous driving technologies.
The world’s second-most valuable company is to end the year with about 4,000 people, up from about 3,000 at the start of this year, sources familiar with its operations said. In a key part of that expansion, Nvidia added about 200 people in Beijing to beef up a team of researchers working on self-driving technology, the people said. The US company also enlarged its after-sales service and networking software development teams, one source said.
Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia is expanding its headcount globally as it works to fulfill runaway demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) chips. China, subject to US trade curbs that prevent Nvidia from selling its most advanced semiconductors, still yielded US$5.4 billion in sales in the September quarter. The country remains an important market and a research hub for the US chip designer.
Courtesy of Nvidia via Reuters
While Nvidia has sought to maintain good relations with Beijing, a Chinese antitrust regulator this week announced a probe into Nvidia’s 2020 takeover of Mellanox Technologies Ltd, which the authorities had conditionally approved earlier. The probe began just weeks after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) highlighted China’s contributions to technology during a trip to Hong Kong.
Company representatives declined to comment.
Beijing’s support for domestic electric vehicle (EV) makers has given it a leading position in pioneering EV technologies and helped lower prices for a new breed of connected cars. Nvidia has been developing driving automation and AI software for over a decade, though its efforts have yet to bear fruit. The company’s China-based researchers would be well-positioned to work with local automakers who are looking for such technologies to enhance their offerings.
As of February, Nvidia had 29,600 employees in 36 countries, the company said in a filing. In China, it expanded over the past couple of years to now have close to 600 people in Beijing and it recently opened a new office in the Zhongguancun tech hub, the sources said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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