Nvidia’s Jensen Huang flies in to Taiwan to thank TSMC, line up next-gen parts, and juggle China H20 AI chip headaches.

A Thank-You Tour with a To-Do List

Jensen Huang landed in Taipei and promptly headed for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). The reason sounded simple enough. He came to “thank all of the people for working hard for me,” and to talk about what is coming next. Huang called TSMC “one of the greatest companies in the history of humanity,” which, given Nvidia’s current market cap and backlog, reads like equal parts praise and survival instinct.

Huang told reporters he would meet top TSMC executives to discuss Nvidia’s latest virtual-reality-related chips and new devices such as Spectrum-X Phonics switches. He also said Nvidia is working with TSMC on six new chips, including a CPU, a GPU, and NVLink parts used in switch production, adding: “All of these chips are now in TSMC’s fabs.” That is a tidy way to say the pipeline is real, and it is already running through Hsinchu.

Translation: Nvidia is not just thanking TSMC for the past year’s heroics. It is staking its near future on them too.

Meanwhile in China: The H20 Gets the Side-Eye

Even as Huang made nice in Taipei, the China story kept intruding. Nvidia won U.S. approval to resume H20, their China-targeting artificial intelligence (AI) chip, sales to China, but Beijing has raised security concerns about the chip. Huang pushed back, saying Nvidia has been clear the H20 has no backdoor access. The timing could not be more awkward. If China does not trust the watered-down chip that was built to fit U.S. rules, the product is stuck between two governments with very different risk models.

According to reports, Nvidia told some suppliers to suspend work on the H20 after Chinese authorities urged firms to stop buying the part. If true, that is not a gentle tap on the brakes. It is the tech equivalent of pulling the car over to check the engine light.

Washington Calls: A New China Chip on the Table?

The plan B is already in motion. Huang said Nvidia is in talks with the U.S. government about a new chip specifically for China. The logic is obvious. If H20 is trapped in a political crossfire, design something that clears Washington’s thresholds without tripping Beijing’s alarms. Huang also argued that shipping H20 to China was beneficial for both Beijing and Washington and not a security threat, a point that speaks to the larger Nvidia thesis that commercial AI compute should not be treated as a Trojan horse.

There is a lesson here about how Nvidia manages geopolitical risk. It is not just building new silicon. It is stress-testing regulatory paths in parallel so the business does not crater every time a minister on either side of the Pacific changes their mind.

Why TSMC Is It

You do not fly to Taipei for a photo op. You fly there because the factory roadmap is the business. Nvidia’s current mainstream AI chips are reliant on TMSC’s advanced processes, as will the next platform, Rubin on the 3-nanometer production cycle, will be. The message of this visit is that Nvidia’s future cadence lives where TSMC’s reticle maps live. Huang’s “one of the greatest companies” line might sound grand, but it doubles as a reminder that there is no plan B at this scale.

Huang even squeezed in a note about Nvidia’s Taiwan footprint. The company is still working with Taipei City on land for a planned “Nvidia Constellation” headquarters. That is another signal that the production and engineering center of gravity is not shifting anytime soon.

What to Watch

First, whether the reported H20 pause hardens into a formal stop. If suppliers keep the lines quiet, channel partners will move on, and China AI buyers will shift procurement to whatever passes regulatory muster. Second, whether Nvidia’s talks with Washington produce a new China-bound model quickly enough to matter. Third, how fast Rubin ramps on TSMC’s 3-nanometer line. That last one is the clean story amid the noise. If Rubin shows up on time and in volume, Nvidia’s top line will be insulated even if the China product mix keeps changing.

In the end, the trip said it all. Thank the foundry. Ship the roadmap. Argue with two governments at once. Then get back on the plane.

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