Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday said that he was not making a geopolitical comment after a Chinese state-backed online media firm criticized him for calling Taiwan a country.
Since Huang arrived in Taiwan on May 26, the Tainan native has been surrounded by fans and media whenever he has been in public.
Reuters reported that some Taiwanese have begun referring to his popularity as “Jensanity.”
Photo: CNA
At a night market on May 29, Huang told reporters that “Taiwan is one of the most important countries in the world. It is at the center of the electronics industry. The computer industry is built because of Taiwan.”
In a speech at National Taiwan University on June 2, he displayed a map of Taiwan surrounded by the names of Taiwanese companies and institutes Nvidia has partnered with, thanking them for being the “bedrock for the AI [artificial intelligence] industrial revolution.”
On Thursday, Chinese online media firm Guancha published an article that said Huang’s popularity in Taiwan might have gone to his head.
“Perhaps he has gotten carried away and it has made him arrogant,” Guancha said. “He even called Taiwan a country.”
“While it was unclear whether his words were a mistake or held a hidden agenda, many Taiwanese media firms responded to them as if they were treasure,” it said, adding that Huang had not responded to online criticism in China so far.
It is absolutely impossible for Chinese companies to work with a company that supports “Taiwan independence,” it said, calling on Huang to give “Chinese compatriots and supply chain partners an explanation.”
In Taipei yesterday, reporters asked Huang to comment on Chinese reactions to his “country” remark.
“I wasn’t making a geopolitical comment, but thanking all of our technology partners here for all their support and contributions to the industry,” Huang said.
Huang departed Taiwan last night.
Voice of America on Friday reported that a National Taiwan University academic said that Beijing would not become hostile toward Huang, because “China needs Nvidia, but Nvidia does not need China.”
Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男), a professor in the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering, told Voice of America that Nvidia dominates the AI chip market, and while the Chinese government backs Huawei Technologies Co, its chips do not perform as well as even Nvidia’s downgraded products.
“The Chinese government bullies the good and fears the strong, so it arbitrarily bans imports of Taiwan’s agricultural products, but does it dare ban Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s [TSMC]?” Lin asked.
China needs Nvidia’s high-end chips, he said, adding that as long as China needs Huang, Beijing will not shoot itself in the foot even if he makes remarks that conflict with its ideology and policies.
Huang was born in Taiwan and when Nvidia was founded, it relied on Taiwanese partners, including TSMC, so he knows the importance of Taiwan in the development of information and communications technology and chip production, Lin said.
Chung Hua University adjunct professor Tu Tzu-chen (杜紫宸) said that the Chinese government knows well the concept of “the lesser of two evils,” so it knows there is nothing to gain from criticizing Huang.
However, Beijing would hold a grudge and whether it seeks redress would depend on Nvidia’s strength, Tu said.
Nvidia is already working with 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chip technology, while the best China has is 7-nanometer, so it still relies on Nvidia for high-end AI chips, which could be used in products such as PCs and autonomous vehicles, he said.
Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a research director at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said that China sees how central Nvidia is in the global AI industry, with an edge in hardware, software, next-generation server platforms, edge computing, smart factories and robotics, so it would not make Huang an enemy to preserve opportunities for cooperation.
Moreover, with China failing to make breakthroughs in high-end AI chip manufacturing and advanced packaging solutions, as well as the algorithm technology gap it faces, it has no choice but to bet its hope on Nvidia, she said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS