NVIDIA's 'Taiwanese CEO' Jensen Huang Also Visited Last June
Lisa Su, CEO of the American semiconductor company AMD, visited Taiwan. Following Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who visited Taiwan amid competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market, Su's visit has raised the possibility of strengthening Taiwan's AI supply chain.
According to Taiwan media including China Times on the 18th, Su arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport in northern Taipei around 2 p.m. local time the previous day on a private jet, beginning a five-day visit to Taiwan.
On the previous day, Su received an honorary doctorate from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu City, home to the Hsinchu Science Park, known as Taiwan's Silicon Valley and a leader in the semiconductor industry. Although she had already been awarded an honorary doctorate in 2018, the ceremony had been repeatedly postponed due to COVID-19, foreign media reported.
During this visit to Taiwan, Su is expected to engage in building AI supply chains.
She is reported to plan meetings with major supply chain companies such as TSMC, the world's largest foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturer), Pegatron, the iPhone assembler, Quanta Computer, the MacBook contract manufacturer, MSI, and Gigabyte Technology after the "Day of Innovation" event on the 19th.
Earlier, Huang visited Taiwan in early last month and disclosed that he had discussions with TSMC and others regarding the supply chain. At that time, he announced that next-generation semiconductor chips would be produced at TSMC. He also emphasized that during the discussions, he felt "completely safe" regarding Taiwan's geopolitical risks.
Nvidia and AMD are competing in the AI semiconductor market. Liu Peijun, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, cited statistics forecasting that the global market size for AI semiconductors will reach $1 trillion (approximately 1,259 trillion KRW) by 2027 and is expected to grow annually by 20-30% in 2028.
However, Taiwan experts expect that if the U.S. Department of Commerce further tightens export restrictions on AI GPUs to China for Nvidia and AMD, it will affect not only these companies but also their Taiwanese supply chains, including TSMC.
Meanwhile, both Su and Huang are Taiwanese Americans originally from Tainan City in southern Taiwan who immigrated to the United States as children.
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