Posted on 05/31/2023 3:32:20 AM PDT by FarCenter
Graphic chip maker plans to build AI research center in Taiwan while continuing product sale to mainland China
By JEFF PAO MAY 31, 2023
Nvidia, a California-based graphic processing unit maker, is going to build a world-class artificial intelligence research center in Taiwan to accelerate its Omniverse project, a computing platform that supports 3D applications.
The announcement was made after the United States firm’s share price surged 24.6% to US$380.6 in a single day on May 24. On Tuesday, the valuation of Nvidia hit $1 trillion, making it the first US chipmaker to join the trillion-dollar club.
Because of this, Nvidia’s founder and chief executive Jensen Huang quickly gained the nickname “One-trillion man” in Taiwan, on top of his reputed status as the “godfather of AI.”
Nvidia’s shares had dropped by 50.3% to $146.14 at the end of last year from $291.11 a year earlier as the US kept tightening the export of high-end chips to China. Last August, the US government banned Nvidia from selling its A100 and H100 chips to China and Russia.
The shares have rebounded by 166% so far this year as the company vowed to invest in AI technology.
Nvidia will hire 1,000 people and invest up to TWD24.3 billion (US$790 million) in its new AI research center, or AI University, which will be jointly managed by the National Taiwan University. It has secured a subsidy of TWD6.7 billion from the Taiwanese government for this project.
The most important move by Nvidia is that it is going to spread its chip fabrication/production (by subcontractors) around the world.
IIRC correctly, you posted an article yesterday that spoke of this and also spoke about how important Taiwan is. It is worrying that Taiwan is so vulnerable to China. If China were to take over Taiwan, the U.S. would be in deep trouble technology-wise.
Nvidia plans to continue to use TSMC as its main partner, but TSMC is building fabs in multiple countries besides Taiwan.
So Nvidia chips that don’t require the latest process nodes can be fabbed outside of Taiwan. However, I believe that TSMC develops the latest nodes and begins production of them only in Taiwan.
this is is a strange decision in light of china’s increasing threat on taiwan.
Is the threat not real?
Is the threat real but Nvidia doesn’t care or lacks sense?
Has a deal been struck whereby china doesn’t invade taiwan in exchange for a cutting edge research lab being placed in taiwan so china has access to it?
Nvidia’s leader recently said that it would not be prudent to think that china would not catch up with computer chips.
He may be right.
That too may be the reason that he is putting the advance ai research lab in taiwan. China has a back door access to taiwan semiconductor. As they will have back door access to nvidia’s research center in taiwan.
I haven't been able to determine exactly how dependent Nvidia is on TSMC for fabrication, but, as a long-time investor in Nvidia, that is a major concern.
As Huang has said, it is hard enough just to train TSMC for fabrication. It might be impossible to spread fab around very much (beyond Samsung and Intel, for example).
Unless Taiwan becomes most of our military budget by barricading the entire Island, it will all belong to China in less than 5 years.
“If China were to take over Taiwan, the U.S. would be in deep trouble technology-wise.”
That’s why some of us aren’t too hot on the Neocons running things in DC, as it’s PERFECTLY CLEAR that they want China to push forward the date when they finally ‘reel Taiwan in’.
I think it would be better policy to try to get chip manufacturing and whatever other critical needs Taiwan has, moved to the West, before going to war with China...but then again, I’m not a Neocon.
Amen!
I think I would park my “hub” someplace a little safer.
The fabs would be whoever ASML has shipped EUV lithography machines to. That seems to be TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. They are the only supplier of EUV, which is the only commercial volume production technology at the latest nodes (although I wouldn’t bet that there aren’t other technologies that can produce equivalent pitches in small volumes expensively for military applications).
I haven’t been able to find out much about Jensen’s family background, but it seems probable that he’s from the post-Revolution mainlander immigration, not the pre-1896 Chinese immigrant or native Taiwanese populations. They were the Kuomingtang who are most interested in preserving the status quo - not an independent nation, yet not ruled by Beijing.
If you “get chip manufacturing and whatever other critical needs Taiwan has, moved to the West,” you destroy the Taiwanese economy. Taiwan becomes an overpopulated, mountainous, resource poor island mired in poverty. At which point they would gladly accept a Chinese offer of unity and economic development.
“At which point they would gladly accept a Chinese offer of unity and economic development.”
Considering that we ALREADY consider Taiwan a part of China, then that would be the end game - reunification, but without destroying the West at the same time.
And if you put together a ping list for your chip threads, please add me.
Thx much and thx for the work you are doing re: this subject.
Peaceful reunification of Taiwan with China would be opposed by Washington because it breaks the “first island chain” containment of Chinese naval power and provides them with access to the wider Pacific.
Washington will use every “soft power” trick in the book to prevent that, and it would probably use hard power if Taiwan actually conceded to reunification.
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There is conflicting information, but I think that the following are true.
He was born in Tainan, Taiwan. He lived in Taiwan and Thailand at an early age. His father worked for Carrier and traveled to the US. Due to tensions in Thailand and to give Jensen opportunities, his parents sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in Oregon. They enrolled him in a Baptist school in Kentucky that turned out to be a reform school, rather than a prep school. He later returned to Oregon and went to high school there.
As an aside, I think all Baptist schools are reform schools.;-)
The AMD stock I own had gone UP $46 since May 2 to May 26 : )
Current Wednesday price is $118.21
It closed at $127.03 last Friday. The stocks are waiting on the debt ceiling talks to be over. They will go up from there.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMD?p=AMD
Look at the tech that goes into making computer chips.
You Didn’t Build your PC… This Did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfU20SAR21A
How many ChiCom spies are embedded in those Taiwan companies? Perhaps that’s the whole reason China doesn’t want to invade Taiwan.
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