Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration.
“I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet.
As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change. Nvidia is looking to speed the deployment of advanced AI systems around the world — much of which depend on its industry-leading chips.
Photo: Reuters
Trump has said that he would impose trade tariffs that might affect companies like Nvidia, which rely heavily on overseas sales and outsourced manufacturing. Nvidia already faces restrictions that prohibit some of its most capable — and lucrative — chips from being exported to China, the biggest market for semiconductors.
“We will give them as much insight as we can from our perspective,” Huang said. “I am sure the administration will make the right moves.”
The remarks follow a wide-ranging product unveiling on Monday that included new chips, software and services.
Nvidia is looking to maintain its edge in AI computing after explosive growth over the past two years.
The Santa Clara, California-based company has said that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution, and Huang envisions a world with 1 billion humanoid robots, 10 million automated factories and 1.5 billion self-driving vehicles.
During a separate question-and-answer session at the CES in Las Vegas, Huang said he expected Trump to bring less regulation.
“I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “As an industry, we want to move fast.”
Meanwhile, Huang stopped short on Tuesday of confirming that his company was going to set up an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, but did say the company needed to expand its office space there.
“We have a lot of employees in Taiwan today, and the building is too small, so I have to do something about that...We’re looking for real estate,” he said at the CES conference when asked about the headquarters idea.
Huang added that he could “announce something” at the Computex trade show, which is slated for May 20 to 23 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
Huang had previously teased the idea of building a headquarters in Taiwan in June last year during last year’s Computex, without providing any further details.
In addition to visiting Taiwan during Computex, Huang said his next trip to Taiwan would be to attend the Lunar New Year party of the Nvidia Taiwan office, which is scheduled for Friday next week.
It is an annual tradition for him that he looks forward to, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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