Nvidia's Jensen Huang arrives in Taiwan to visit TSMC (update)

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia, is in Taiwan to visit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to discuss his company's new products.

It was the third visit Huang has made to Taiwan this year.

Soon after his plane landed at Taipei Songshan Airport on Friday morning, Huang told reporters that he will meet with top TSMC executives to discuss Nvidia's latest virtual reality-related chips and its plan to launch new devices, including Spectrum-X Phonics switches.

Describing TSMC as "one of the greatest companies in the history of humanity," Huang said Nvidia is also working with TSMC on six new chips, including a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit, and NVilink chips used in switch production.

"All of these chips are now in TSMC's fabs," Huang said. "I came to thank all of the people for working hard for me."

Huang said he will have dinner with TSMC's executives and after the dinner, he will leave Taiwan to wrap up the brief trip.

On his last visit to Taiwan in May, Huang had dinner with TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and other executives, and the meeting lasted three hours.

Nvidia is one of the most important clients of TSMC as the Taiwanese chipmaker is able to meet the U.S. company's needs to roll out the next generation high efficiency chip.

Currently, Nvidia's mainstream AI GB200 chip uses TSMC's advanced 4NP process, a performance-focused enhancement of the 5-nanometer technology platform. The upcoming Rubin platform will adopt TSMC's 3nm process, the most advanced technology being mass produced.

Asked to comment on reports that the U.S. government may be eyeing a stake in TSMC, Huang said anyone who wanted to buy TSMC stock is a very smart person as "TSMC is a very good investment."

On Wednesday, a Reuters report, citing unnamed sources, said the U.S. government wants equity in chipmakers that receive funding under the CHIP Act to build factories in the country, with TSMC being one of them.

As for the construction of Nvidia's Taiwan headquarters, Huang said Friday that his company is still in discussions with the Taipei City government to solve existing problems before breaking ground on the complex in the Beitou-Shilin Science Park.

Nvidia has set sights on two lots of land in the science park -- designated T17 and T18 -- which had been leased by the city government to Shin Kong Insurance in 2021 for a 50-year property development project.

The city is hoping to cancel the lease with Shin Kong Insurance to allow Nvidia to use the two parcels of land.

"I'm hoping that the government will resolve whatever issues they have so that we can start building Nvidia Constellation here," Huang said. "Our employees are really, really looking forward to it."

Currently, Nvidia has two offices in Taiwan, one in Taipei's Neihu District and the other in Hsinchu, that house a workforce of about 1,800.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has won approval from the U.S. government to resume sales of H20 chip, the downgraded version of its Hopper lineup, to China, but the Chinese government has raised security concerns over the chip.

In response, Huang said on Friday that Nvidia has made very clear that the H20 chip has no security backdoor access.

Huang expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for allowing Nvidia to sell the H20 chip to China at a time when its Chinese clients are expanding their AI business and demand is strong.