'People's dad' Jensen Huang praises, pushes Nvidia suppliers on mobbed Taiwan visit

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Nvidia NVDA.O CEO Jensen Huang praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for AI, capping a visit to the island of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step.

Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant late on Saturday, where he had hosted suppliers for a "trillion-dollar dinner", named after the market capitalisation of those firms attending, Huang said this would be another good year for business.

"TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot of wafers," he said, laughing, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co 2330.TW, the world's largest producer of advanced chips used in artificial-intelligence applications.

"TSMC is doing an incredible job and they're working very, very hard. We have a lot of demand this year," he added after taking pictures with a beaming TSMC CEO C.C. Wei.

"Over the next 10 years, TSMC will likely increase their capacity by much more than 100%, and so this is a very substantial scale-up in the next decade."

Wei did not answer questions from reporters.

Last month, TSMC said capital spending could jump as much as 37% this year to $56 billion, and would increase "significantly" in 2028 and 2029 given AI demand.

Huang, who emigrated to the United States as a child, is met by a throng of adoring fans wherever he returns to Taiwan. Local media, who refer to him as "the people's dad", breathlessly report on his every move.

Huang co-founded California-based Nvidia in 1993. Last year, it became the first company to breach $5 trillion in market value, continuing a meteoric rise that has firmly positioned it at the heart of the global AI revolution.

In Taipei, he expressed concern about supplies of memory chips, which support AI workloads, amid a production crunch.

"We need a lot of memory this year," he said. "I think that the entire supply chain is challenging this year because demand is so much more."

Huang periodically stepped out of the dinner, attended by two dozen executives, including Young Liu, chairman of contract-electronics maker Foxconn 2317.TW, Nvidia's biggest server maker, to greet his fans and sign autographs.

"We have so many partners here in Taiwan. Nvidia won't be possible without Taiwan. There's magic in this island. The companies here have extraordinary technology, they've incredible culture," he said, when asked about how he felt about his movie star-like fame whenever he visits.

"I'm really proud of Taiwan."

Huang arrived from China on Thursday and is expected to leave Monday.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by William Mallard)

((ben.blanchard@thomsonreuters.com;))