Its boss, Jensen Huang, said it at the opening of the Computex show: “the next industrial revolution has begun”. It is in this context that the global electronic chip giant Nvidia unveiled, on Sunday June 2, in Taiwan new projects and products linked to artificial intelligence (AI).
At a time when AI is reshaping the cards in the sector, other global heavyweights such as Qualcomm, AMD and Intel must also speak during the highly anticipated 2024 edition of Computex, the island’s main technological showcase where Semiconductor factories supply key components for many products, from iPhones to the servers that run ChatGPT.
Jensen Huang enjoys great fame on his native island, where fans stop him to ask for autographs and selfies. His group, Nvidia, has become the undisputed world leader in chips and specialized hardware for AI. “Companies and countries are partnering with Nvidia to move traditional trillion-dollar data centers to accelerated computing and build a new type of data center – AI factories – to produce a new commodity : artificial intelligence,” he explained.
He announced the release of Nvidia ACE, a generative AI product that can create realistic human avatars for industries like customer support.
Develop autonomous robots
The emblematic boss also explained how certain clients, for example the Taiwanese Foxconn, the world’s leading contract electronics manufacturer, or the German industrial giant Siemens, are using Nvidia’s platforms to develop autonomous robots powered by AI.
While Nvidia has just released its Blackwell platform, its CEO announced plans for an “ultra” version in 2025, and briefly unveiled a next-generation GPU (graphics card) architecture code called Rubin.
During a nearly two-hour speech, full of praise for the expertise of his native land, Jensen Huang more broadly presented an accelerated roadmap for new products. In the future, “almost every interaction you have with the Internet or with a computer will probably have generative AI running in the cloud somewhere,” he pointed out. “Taiwan is the country of our valued partners. This is where […] begins everything Nvidia does, we and our partners bring it to the world. Taiwan and our partnership have created the global AI infrastructure,” he praised.
The day before, he had kicked off a baseball game in Taipei and had dinner Thursday with leaders of Taiwan’s technology industry, such as the boss of Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple.
Showcasing the future
Speeches from Lisa Su and Cristiano Amon, respective bosses of AMD and Qualcomm, are also expected at Computex. The first will present its plans for advanced AI and the second “what users can expect from their next generation PCs with an AI-accelerated experience”, according to the organizers.
Pat Gelsinger, CEO of the American Intel, and Rene Haas, of the British giant Arm, will also speak. Young Liu, CEO of Foxconn, already promised his shareholders on Friday that his group would represent 40% of the global AI server market this year.
Taiwan produces most of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, including the most powerful AI applications and research, with a central position in the global supply chain.
The autonomously governed island is claimed as one of its provinces by China, which has never ruled out the use of force to place it under its control.