Nvidia to build a Taiwan headquarters: Jensen Huang

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Jensen Huang, CEO of U.S.-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp., has said that he is looking to build a headquarters in Taiwan, without giving further details.

Speaking with reporters outside a restaurant in Taipei, Huang said Monday night that he is looking for "a very large site" for an Nvidia headquarters in Taiwan.

The tech company is already in the process of setting up its first AI research and development center in Asia in Taiwan, as part of the Taiwan government's "Supreme A+ Program."

The program, initiated in 2020, aims to attract global pioneers in innovation to invest in state-of-the-art technologies in semiconductors, communications and artificial intelligence (AI) in Taiwan, according to the government.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Nvidia's R&D center project, which began in 2023, will build a supercomputer, named "Taipei-1," and work with Taiwan's industry and research institutions to develop AI technologies and products.

The installment of "Taipei-1" was completed at the end of last year in Kaohsiung.

At Tuesday's press conference in Taipei, Huang said that Nvidia planned to build a second supercomputer in Taiwan, but did not provide further details on the planned headquarters.

It is also not clear whether the headquarters Huang referred to is part of the AI R&D center project.

In video clips of an interview with local news station TVBS released Monday night, Huang was asked why he chose Taiwan to build Nvidia's first R&D center in Asia.

"We have a very long history in Taiwan. A long time ago when I was young and when Nvidia was young, I came to Taiwan to seek partners to help us build our chips," Huang said. "I was fortunate to have the support of TSMC, package company SPIL (Siliconware Precision Industries), and many assembly companies here, like Foxconn, Asus, MSI, Quanta."

"Another reason is technology excellence. The ecosystem is unparalleled," he said. "Every aspect of building chips and computers is located here, all the way down to the most minute, complex connectors that connect high-speed cables."

Huang also praised the "work ethic" of the people here and the "spirit of partnership" among the companies.

"That has really set Taiwan apart," he added.

Meanwhile, "Taiwan is the source of so much of our engineering. We have hundreds of engineers here and over the next five years, we are going to hire another thousand engineers," Huang said, referring to the R&D center.

In the interview, he also said that the company is "seeking a large plot of land" to build a "significant headquarters" here.

"If anybody has some property they'd like to tell me about, please let me know," he said in the interview.