Three Taiwan-tied giants lead AI computing revolution
TAIPEI (TVBS News) — A South Korean newspaper columnist recently described Nvidia (輝達) CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), AMD (超微) CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) and TSMC (台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) as semiconductor "giants." The three leaders, all with Taiwan roots, are shaping the global chip industry and redefining computing infrastructure in the AI era, Seo Jung-myung (서정명) wrote Tuesday (June 2) in Seoul Economic Daily (서울경제신문).
Huang, born in Tainan in 1963, emigrated to the United States at age 9 and founded Nvidia at 30. Often dubbed the "Napoleon of the semiconductor industry," Huang declared at his GTC Taipei 2026 keynote that the company is "reinventing the computer." He said PCs will evolve from user-operated tools into continuously running personal AI agents as applications shift toward agentic AI.
The column reflects growing international recognition of Taiwan's central role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Nvidia's RTX Spark laptop chip, built on TSMC's 3-nanometer process and co-developed with MediaTek (聯發科), features a 20-core CPU and 128 GB of memory. The chip can run 100-billion-parameter AI models locally and will launch this fall through Acer (宏碁), Asus (華碩), Gigabyte (技嘉) and MSI (微星).
Lisa Su, born in Taiwan and relocated to the U.S. at age 3, led a major materials shift in semiconductor interconnects from aluminum to copper during her tenure at IBM. The breakthrough is widely seen as pivotal in chip history. After taking over AMD in 2014 when its credit rating was weak, Su grew the company's market capitalization from US$3 billion (approximately NT$94.56 billion) to over US$850 billion (approximately NT$26.99 trillion). AMD is now the world's second-largest GPU company.
Morris Chang founded TSMC in 1987 at the age of 54 after being invited by the Taiwanese government, establishing the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry. Today, TSMC commands more than 70% of the global foundry market. Leading chip designers including Nvidia, Apple and AMD rely on its manufacturing capabilities.
Computex Taipei (台北國際電腦展), held under the theme "AI Together," brought together 1,500 technology companies from 33 countries. The event underscored Taiwan's role as both a hardware manufacturing hub and a trusted partner in deploying AI applications. Seo wrote that the three semiconductor leaders are "writing a defining chapter in history."
Computex 2026 runs through Friday (June 5) in Taipei. Huang emphasized a hybrid computing model in which local devices handle basic tasks while complex workloads are offloaded to cloud-based systems. ◼ (At time of reporting, US$1 equals approximately NT$31.52)