Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang meets with TSMC in Taiwan, discusses AI chip shortage concerns over dinner

News
By Christopher Harper
published

The CEO says Nvidia is "Very severely supply-constrained" in relation to AI hardware, but that all its partners are working hard to meet demand

A still of Jensen Huang taking questions in Taiwan after attending dinner with members of TSMC to discuss chip supply.
A still of Jensen Huang taking questions in Taiwan after attending dinner with members of TSMC to discuss chip supply. (Image credit: 中央社攝影看世界 on YouTube)

At a time when the PC and mobile industries continually demand artificial intelligence hardware and features, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently visited TSMC in Taipei, Taiwan, for a dinner with its executives. 

We don't have a readout from the dinner (it was likely confidential, for good reason), but Fortune.com reported on some comments made to the press after the occasion. Additionally, we've embedded a video below from the Central News Agency of Taiwan's YouTube channel, where some of those same comments can be found in video form. 

Jensen most likely traveled to Taiwan to talk business with his fellow executives at TSMC and perhaps other manufacturing partners. In the video, Huang says, "TSMC, all of our supply chain partners here, are working very hard to keep up with the demand," referencing AI hardware, like Nvidia's GPUs equipped with Tensor cores.

Besides giving an update to the press regarding the high demand for AI hardware and how Nvidia, TSMC, and their partners are rushing to meet it, Jensen also references his dancing in a lighthearted moment early in the CNA video. "I hope none of my dancing ever shows up on the Internet," joked Huang, garnering a few chuckles. "If it shows up on the Internet, please remove it right away. Once I dance, you cannot unsee it."

In all seriousness, Jensen traveling like this shows that he's taking the initiative regarding the supply constraints faced by Nvidia. Before visiting Taiwan, he also visited mainland China, though he declined to answer any questions about Nvidia's business there. That said, we could probably answer a few questions about Nvidia's business in China for you, especially since Nvidia started readying new China-specific GPU chips in November 2023.

Christopher Harper
Freelance News Writer
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Notton
    I'm kind of confused as to what the point is?
    It's not like TSMC can overclock their fabs to produce things faster. TSMC is currently in the process of expanding capacity by building more fabs, aren't they?

    And if nvidia wants more chips, why not talk to Samsung? I know Samsung isn't as good quality as TSMC, but surely Samsung must have tons of leftover capacity?
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Nvidia CEO saying "just kick AMD and give to us their production"
    Reply
  • ThomasKinsley
    Notton said:
    I'm kind of confused as to what the point is?
    It's not like TSMC can overclock their fabs to produce things faster. TSMC is currently in the process of expanding capacity by building more fabs, aren't they?

    And if nvidia wants more chips, why not talk to Samsung? I know Samsung isn't as good quality as TSMC, but surely Samsung must have tons of leftover capacity?
    Nvidia had a deal with Samsung to produce 3nm chips in 2022 and switched to TSMC late 2023. Huang is likely trying to secure a line at TSMC for the next generation of products.
    Reply
  • tamalero
    Amdlova said:
    Nvidia CEO saying "just kick AMD and give to us their production"
    Yeah lol...
    Seems he's trying to get in bed with TSCM to kick competitors out and get their share.
    Reply
  • parkerthon
    The AI explosion I don’t think was anticipated 3-5 years ago when they were planning production capacity. Pretty long time to develop and implement these technologies at scale. Considering there’s also the lithography machines from asml and potentially other highly specialized suppliers. Never mind we’ve had chip shortages due to covid as well all across the industry. Only relief was the recent crash in device sales. Then theres china ai chip production export bans to consider which may have also helped western countries by being coincidentally timed perfectly for the demand explosion. Interesting to watch how all this plays out.
    Reply
  • passivecool
    "Sam Altman is talking to TSMC about AI chip venture" maybe our man is reminding tscm what side of the bread the butter has been on?
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Notton said:
    It's not like TSMC can overclock their fabs to produce things faster. TSMC is currently in the process of expanding capacity by building more fabs, aren't they?

    I'm sure they can make changes to marginally increase production but this is usually at the expense of total cost of production and an increase in per part cost.

    Where to place that line is definitely a discussion worth putting between the two management teams.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Notton said:
    I'm kind of confused as to what the point is?
    It's not like TSMC can overclock their fabs to produce things faster. TSMC is currently in the process of expanding capacity by building more fabs, aren't they?
    Maybe there's nothing to be done, but what if there is some bottleneck Nvidia could help address or financing they could provide to help speed the addition of more capacity? You'd never know, if you don't have candid discussions with your manufacturers and suppliers about their circumstances and constraints. For discussions about sensitive topics, face-to-face meetings are sometimes preferred.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    parkerthon said:
    The AI explosion I don’t think was anticipated 3-5 years ago when they were planning production capacity.
    Well, I think ASML has been building lithography machines as fast as it can, for most of that time. Especially once the pandemic hit, almost 4 years ago. And remember the whole crypto boom thing?
    Reply