Stephen Witt’s new book, The thought machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia and the most coveted micropuce in the world, This week was released this week, as was the prices of American President Donald Trump aroused fears of a world trade war and raised questions about the future of the main global companies, including Nvidia.
NVIDIA graphic processing units, or GPU, are the most powerful tools used to form artificial intelligence models. The enormous power of calculation of fleas has made it the target of American export controls to block Advancement of the AI of China.
The NVIDIA global supply chain also seems precarious. Taiwan, where most of his best tokens have been made, faces China threats, while Trump’s new prices are hitting Some of its products. The bustle of the market at a given time has annihilated more than $ 200 billion in the value of Nvidia.
Witt, who is based in Los Angeles, spoke to Rest of the world Regarding the Huang political test, the world supply chains of Nvidia and its recent books of books in China and Taiwan. The interview was published for duration and clarity.
The founder of TSMC, Morris Chang, said that globalization was “almost dead” when his business had to Build a factory in Arizona. Now we have these prices. How do you think Jensen Huang will sail on Trump’s policy?
Jensen does not talk about politics, not with me, not with anyone. It is probably the most powerful technological figure in America so as not to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump. Now Jensen has to face politics. The disturbance of his business is too serious.
Nvidia had long benefited from American manufacturing. It is completely outsourced, mainly in Taiwan. Personally, I am sure he thinks that these prices are a terrible idea. Let it ever say it out loud, I don’t know.
For Nvidia, an option is to pay the prices. Nvidia can afford, almost only, to pay these prices, because the margins are high. But the profits will drop and the equity prices will drop.
The second is to try to rebuild or manufacture on the ground in the United States. I think they are reluctant to do it because it seems likely that any politician, even another republican, cancels or reverse these prices. The third option would simply increase prices.
Nvidia also opposed the American government’s attempts to restrict fleas exports to China. After the most powerful tokens were prohibited, it sold billions of dollars slightly lower fleas to Chinese technological companies. Why does Nvidia do this?
Jensen argued that China will simply innovate this problem. He said a few years ago, then Deepseek came And proven that they could do it.
This is probably Jensen’s point of view: if we prohibit this kind of thing, (China) will build it better and cheaper. It would in fact be in our long -term strategic and competitive advantage to continue selling them, because there will be no domestic competitor.
Even if Nvidia temporarily has this monopoly, they cannot remain motionless.
Jensen Huang was born in Taiwan; There are many suppliers. He is also considered someone who connects Taiwan’s fate, faced with the threat of invasion of China, to the world AI industry. How does he see his role in Taiwan?
Jensen is really a native son of Taiwan. He speaks Taiwanese and not Mandarin. He also killed so much productivity and money in Taiwan. In this regard, he is a national hero. It is a celebrity like Steve Jobs.
I asked Deb (Debora) Shoquist, the executive of Nvidia in charge of the management of the supply chain, which will happen if China invades Taiwan. And she said that she had been invited to never think of this question, because the consequences would be so huge. It would be as if California had fallen and broke into the ocean.
Viking
Jensen has never advanced or pushed a particular political interest. I think he can remain a little amorphous. My impression is that he was just kicking on the box. Nvidia will not worry about China and Taiwan; We are going to focus on other things. I don’t think he can do it now (with Trump).
NVIDIA invests in research centers and data infrastructure Developing countries. What pushes the business to do so?
Nvidia may not be manufactured, but they sell equipment, so they really have to understand these supply chains and have very intimate relationships with all those involved. And they must spread it as largely as possible due to the potential risk of a global disaster.
Some governments wish to build their own semiconductor manufacturing industries. Jensen encourages these initiatives. Governments are potential customers For him too. And I think there is a pipeline of engineering talent Coming from India and China. Why not Vietnam, MalaysiaWhat about Indonesia too?
In China… they say: how can my son or my teenage daughter become the next Jensen Huang?
There have been a lot of discussions on the prejudices of technological monopolies. Does Nvidia monopoly on high-end fleas cause risks?
No. Here is why. In semiconductors in particular, you throw your products every two years and reinvent it.
Even if Nvidia temporarily has this monopoly, they cannot remain motionless. This could happen during a year that they suddenly no longer monopoly. Some competitors could offer an innovative product. Unlike a classic monopoly that stifles innovation and increases prices, Nvidia cannot afford to do so.
You just promoted Chinese translations of your book in China and Taiwan. What did people ask you there?
No one talks about politics in China, at least not with me. Instead, they say: how can my son or my teenage daughter become the next Jensen Huang?
China has this completely fetishist relationship with the billionaires of Silicon Valley. They want to recreate this at the highest possible degree with the next generation of Chinese students and engineers.
In Taiwan, it was all politics. “Are we all going to die?” is the subtext of each question I have. There was a certain element of terror. Many questions were like: “Trump is it serious about these prices? What will TSMC do? What will happen to us?”