GTC Taipei 2026 media briefing
'Market demand explosive, supply can't keep up'
Huang confident in RTX Spark AI PC superchip
'Will completely reinvent the PC for the AI era'
On bonuses: 'Employees deserve maximum compensation'
CEO signals strong intent to re-enter China market
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday that chip supply remains constrained despite strong backing from partners across the global semiconductor supply chain, signaling that the current shortage is likely to persist for now.
Asked about the bonus dispute at Samsung Electronics that has rattled the global semiconductor supply chain, Huang said employees "deserve maximum compensation" and added that he practices what he preaches.
He also expressed confidence in Nvidia's next-generation CPU, "Vera," and signaled a strong intent to re-enter the Chinese market, which is currently blocked by U.S. export regulations.
Huang made the remarks Monday morning at the GTC Taipei 2026 media briefing at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, in response to a question about the supply outlook for Nvidia superchips including "Blackwell" and "Vera Rubin."
"We have secured enormous volume alongside our partners to achieve strong growth," he said, "but the reality is that market demand is so explosive that supply still cannot keep up."
He went on to praise MediaTek, one of Nvidia's key partners, as a pillar of its supply chain. In an unusual move, Huang invited MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai to join the media briefing, underscoring Nvidia's deep alliance with Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem.
MediaTek contributed to the CPU design inside the RTX Spark, Nvidia's first superchip for AI PCs, which the company unveiled the previous day.
Nvidia said hundreds of engineers from both companies spent two years collaborating on a custom CPU design, achieving best-in-class power efficiency, performance and connectivity compared with competing products.
"Without MediaTek's system-on-chip technology, I cannot complete my chip," Huang said. "MediaTek has become a core pillar of our supply chain and has given us strong support."
He expressed confidence in the RTX Spark, saying it would mark the moment the PC evolves from a mere tool into "a true personal assistant."
Asked why Nvidia is extending its reach from B2B AI chips into personal AI PCs, Huang said AI "will not stay at the inference stage running agents — it will expand into edge devices," adding that the personal computer is "the world's largest edge device."
"The personal computer has been around for more than 40 years, so we are fully focused on what is truly a massive project: completely reinventing it for the agentic AI era," he said.
When asked about employee compensation in the wake of the labor dispute over bonuses at Samsung Electronics, Huang said he was "not an expert" but added: "Employees deserve maximum compensation. They should not be left feeling dissatisfied."
"I pay my employees as much as I possibly can," he said.
Huang also expressed strong pride in Nvidia's transformation from a maker of high-end graphics processing units into what he described as an "AI infrastructure company."
"We ask ourselves: are we merely a GPU company, or are we an AI computing company? Do we want to settle for making a single chip, or do we want to run entire large-scale computing processes?" he said. "That is why Nvidia keeps evolving without stopping."
"We started with a simple GPU, then scaled to the rack level, then to full systems, and now to complete AI infrastructure," he said. "We want to help the entire world successfully build AI infrastructure."
On plans to resume sales to China, Huang offered a measured response. "Nvidia sells wherever it is permitted to sell and complies with all export and import restrictions. We respect and follow every rule, law and policy on earth," he said.
He signaled a clear intent to compete in the Chinese market, however. "China is an intensely competitive market, so you can only survive by building products of real value — and in that regard, the Vera CPU is a highly differentiated product," he said.
At GTC Taipei on Sunday, Huang and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won marked SK Hynix's achievement of a $1 trillion market capitalization, with the two companies reaffirming plans to deepen cooperation on next-generation AI infrastructure.
joze@heraldcorp.com
go@heraldcorp.com
