TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s “godfather of AI” Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) delivered the keynote speech at the technology exhibition Computex on Monday (May 29) announcing a range of new products to a 3,500 people audience amid a Steve Jobs-esque atmosphere.
Huang, the Taiwanese American founder and CEO of Nvidia, spoke at the event after days of media buzz over his arrival in Taiwan, which marked the first time he has visited the country in four years. He said that big changes are coming to computing, and that AI will be driving them.
“We’re now at the tipping point of a new computing era,” Huang said, arguing that with the help of AI, everyone can now be a programmer.
The CEO also announced a slew of new products during the two-hour speech. The announcements included a superchip designed for data center applications, new gaming hardware and software, advertising products, and robotics technology.
Huang said Nvidia was developing technologies for 5G and 6G communication technology. He said that the technology will be used for self-driving cars, and could even enable 3D video conferencing and holographic communications in the future.
Nvidia is also developing services for custom AI models for gaming, that will allow developers to program conversational skills and “lifelike personalities” into non-player characters that will evolve over time. The AI technology can also be used to generate marketing content, legal documents, language to code translations, and can even identify and classify toxic substances, the company said.
Taiwan electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn is among the Taiwanese companies working with Nvidia to automate production lines, Huang said, as he announced Nvidia’s new robotics products. In addition to robotics hardware, he also announced new software for coordinating fleets of automated robots working in and around humans in “unstructured environments.”
Watch Huang's full speech at Computex here. (Youtube, Nvidia Taiwan video)
Last year the U.S. government placed export controls on shipments of advanced chip technology to China, resulting in Nvidia exporting its less advanced chips to the country to comply with the regulations. Huang said in an interview with the Financial Times on May 24 that the U.S. chip industry risks massive damage from the controls.
“If [China] can’t buy from… the United States, they’ll just build it themselves,” he said. “So the U.S. has to be careful. China is a very important market for the technology industry.”
Huang also warned of disruption to supply chains in the interview, and stressed the importance of the Chinese market.
“We can theoretically build chips outside of Taiwan, it’s possible [but] the China market cannot be replaced,” Huang said. “So you’ve got to ask yourself which way do you want to push it.”
Nvidia’s value shot up by US$184 billion (over NT$5 trillion) in a single day on May 25, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies, behind Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet, and Amazon.
