AI business different from dot-com bubble: Jensen Huang

Taipei, Nov. 7 (CNA) Nvidia founder Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said Friday that he remains upbeat about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) despite recent concerns over a potential market bubble.

Huang, who arrived in Tainan on Friday for his fourth trip to Taiwan this year, highlighted the strong demand and real-world applications of AI technology when asked to compare the current boom with the internet frenzy of the late 1990s.

"This time is very different because during the dot-com most of the fiber in the ground was dark, but this time all of the GPUs in the cloud [are] being used, and so the demand is very, very strong," Huang told reporters at the airport, before heading to a 3-nanometer fab of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), one of Nvidia's closest partners.

"Of course, AI technology is now so effective. The demand is very high because the technology is very compute-intensive. The computing demand is very high, so we are trying to catch up [with] very strong demand," he added, in response to growing global concern about a possible overvaluation of the AI industry.

During his brief talk with reporters, Huang reiterated the strong business outlook and momentum of AI technology, echoing remarks he made a week ago at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in South Korea, where he said the AI industry had entered a "virtuous cycle."

In addition to declining investor confidence, Huang and Nvidia remain caught between Beijing and Washington.

Beijing has tightened restrictions on the import of American chips as part of its ongoing push to promote domestic industry, according to the Financial Times.

Meanwhile, the United States has barred Nvidia from selling its cutting-edge Blackwell chips to China. The stalemate remained unchanged following a recent meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Busan, South Korea.

Commenting on the issue, Huang said there was "no active discussion" at the moment. "Currently, we are not planning to ship anything to China," he said.

"It's up to China when they would like Nvidia products to go back to serve the Chinese market, so I look forward to them changing their policy, and hopefully we'll be able to serve the Chinese market again," he added.

Huang will conclude his short trip by attending TSMC's sports day in Hsinchu County on Saturday before returning to the U.S.