Jensen Huang praises TSMC as 'pride of the world'

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Nvidia founder Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday lauded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), calling the chipmaker that helped his own company build its AI empire the "pride of the world."

"Without TSMC, there is no Nvidia today," Huang said at TSMC’s Sports Day at a stadium in Hsinchu County.

"You are really the pride of Taiwan, you are also the pride of the world ... Thank you for helping me build Nvidia,” Huang said of TSMC, recalling a collaboration that has spanned three decades and seen both companies become leaders in their respective fields.

Veteran tech reporter and commentator Owen Lin (林宏文), who has covered TSMC for more than three decades, told CNA on Saturday that Huang has every reason to thank TSMC, which he said has "helped [Nvidia] accomplish many impossible tasks."

"There were many companies that claimed they couldn't develop water-cooling techniques within 10 years, but [TSMC] made it happen in three," Lin said.

Water cooling dissipates heat far more efficiently than air cooling, allowing higher performance and energy efficiency in high-power systems.

Commenting on recent global concerns over a potential AI bubble, Lin said it was "not around the corner yet."

Lin said the sector’s current price-to-earnings ratio, around 30, is far below the 100 seen during the late-1990s dot-com frenzy.

On Thursday, Sun Ming-te (孫明德), director of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research's Macroeconomic Forecasting Center, attributed growing unease to a lack of major breakthroughs despite extensive cross-investment among leading tech companies.

On the other hand, Huang, who arrived in Taiwan on Friday to meet with TSMC executives, expressed optimism about future AI development, noting that demand for AI remains “very, very strong."