Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, is surrounded by journalists and visitors at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, where Computex is being held in Taiwan on May 20. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
TAIPEI, May 23, 2025 (Korea Bizwire) — COMPUTEX 2025, Asia’s largest information technology expo, concluded its four-day run in Taipei on Thursday — and it was, by all accounts, the Jensen Huang show.
From keynote speeches to back-to-back meetings with Taiwan’s top tech firms and government officials, the Nvidia CEO’s presence dominated the event, underscoring both his company’s rising influence in the AI industry and Taiwan’s aspirations to be the global center of artificial intelligence.
The Taiwanese-American executive’s star power was on full display. His packed schedule included a high-profile “trillion-dollar dinner” with executives from TSMC, MediaTek, and Quanta, followed by a major keynote, exhibition floor tours, and a global media briefing.
Wherever he went, crowds followed — one spontaneous appearance drew a queue over 100 meters long, with employees seeking autographs and even shedding tears.
Visitors line up at major company booths at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan, where the event opened on the 20th. (Yonhap)
COMPUTEX, traditionally a showcase for PC components and hardware, has evolved into an AI-centric summit, a transformation largely attributed to Huang’s influence. This year, leading Taiwanese companies such as MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, and Acer shifted their focus from laptops and desktops to AI solutions, prominently displaying Nvidia branding to emphasize alliance.
Beyond the expo floor, Huang’s influence seeped into local culture. Advertisements featured lookalikes promoting food with slogans like “Even AI’s godfather approves,” a nod to his revered status in Taiwan.
During his keynote, Huang referred to Taiwan as his “homeland” and boldly stated Nvidia and Taiwan would become the epicenter of the AI world. In a carefully balanced message, he also stressed the importance of maintaining business ties with China, declaring U.S. export controls “a failure” and arguing that access to China’s market benefits American jobs and industry.
The tight embrace between Taiwan and Nvidia stood in stark contrast to the marginal presence of non-Taiwanese firms at the show. Most international companies were relegated to peripheral spaces, with the exception of key Nvidia partners. U.S.-based Micron and South Korea’s SK Hynix, both suppliers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) critical to AI chips, maintained a visible presence.
Huang visited SK Hynix’s booth personally, leaving his signature on a displayed HBM unit and urging strong support for the next-generation HBM4. Micron showcased its HBM portfolio in a private Nvidia exhibition space at Taipei’s Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, visits the Foxconn exhibition booth at the COMPUTEX event in Taiwan on the 20th, exclaiming, “Bring up Taiwan!” (Image provided by Yonhap)
Notably absent from Huang’s engagements was any mention of Samsung Electronics, despite industry speculation over whether the Korean giant’s HBM products had passed Nvidia’s qualification process. One investor suggested the silence was due to ongoing testing of Samsung’s HBM samples, with results expected in the coming months.
COMPUTEX 2025 hosted approximately 1,400 companies from 34 countries across 4,800 booths. Yet the event’s overarching narrative belonged to Huang and his vision for a Taiwan-centered AI future — a future where global tech giants, especially those outside Taiwan, may struggle to find a seat at the table.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
