NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's trip to Asia has already yielded fruitful results. He has successively announced cooperation or investment plans in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, demonstrating the importance that the AI (artificial intelligence) chip giant attaches to the Asian market. On December 10, local time, the Vietnamese government website stated that Prime Minister Pham Minh Ching of the Vietnamese government met with Huang Renxun that day.
Huang Renxun said that Nvidia "regards Vietnam as its home" and the company hopes to establish a semiconductor base in Vietnam because Vietnam is an important market. The Vietnamese government said the base will "attract talents from all over the world and contribute to the development of Vietnam's semiconductor ecosystem and digitalization."
On December 11, Huang Renxun and other NVIDIA executives continued to hold working meetings at the National Innovation Center (NIC) in Vietnam. According to foreign media reports, Nvidia has previously invested approximately US$250 million in Vietnam.
Vietnam is already the fourth stop of Huang Jen-Hsun's Asia tour, and it is unclear whether it will be the last stop. Before Vietnam, Huang Renxun had visited Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. Among these four countries, three are Southeast Asian countries, showing that NVIDIA is actively developing its layout in Southeast Asia.
In an interview with Malaysian media, Huang Renxun also said that he was "confident in Southeast Asia." At present, NVIDIA has announced that it will build a semiconductor base in Vietnam, has conducted negotiations on possible future large-scale investments in Singapore, helped the Singaporean government develop large models, and invested 20 billion Malaysian ringgit (approximately US$4.29 billion) in Malaysia to cooperate with YTL (Malaysian Yang Zhongli Group) to build AI infrastructure.
Before visiting Southeast Asia, Huang first came to Tokyo on December 4 to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. After the meeting, Huang Renxun said in an interview that Nvidia plans to cooperate with Japanese companies including SoftBank to develop generative AI, and said that he promised the Prime Minister that Nvidia "will do its best to prioritize Japan's GPU needs."
The four countries that Huang Renxun visited on this trip have one obvious thing in common, that is, they are all vigorously promoting the development of AI and semiconductor industries. Among them, the Japanese government just passed an additional budget in November and decided to use about 2 trillion yen in subsidies for the chip field to strengthen Japan's position in the global semiconductor field. On December 4, Singapore also released the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2.0, proposing to triple the number of its AI practitioners to 15,000 by training local talents and recruiting talents from overseas.
According to foreign media reports, foreign direct investment in Malaysia’s semiconductor industry has increased significantly since this year. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also said after the meeting with Huang Renxun that Nvidia's decision to invest in Malaysia is a clear signal that foreign investors, especially the world's technology giants, continue to regard Malaysia as the preferred investment destination in the region.
Vietnam attaches even greater importance to the chip industry. In September this year, U.S. President Biden visited Hanoi, Vietnam. The White House stated that Vietnam could be a "key player" in the global semiconductor supply chain. At that time, documents released by the White House showed that Nvidia had cooperated with leading technology companies in Vietnam to deploy AI technology in cloud computing, automotive and medical industries. In October this year, Nguyen Phu Hung, director of the Department of Economic, Technical, Industrial and Scientific Affairs of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, also said that recent cooperation between Vietnam and the United States and other countries in the field of semiconductor chips has brought huge opportunities to Vietnam, and Vietnam can fully participate in the global semiconductor value chain.
Other analysts pointed out that Nvidia’s trip to Asia may have another goal, which is to find potential partners. At the recent UBS Global Technology Conference, NVIDIA Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said that there are many powerful wafer foundries on the market. TSMC and Samsung are both important partners of NVIDIA, and NVIDIA is also considering adding other potential wafer foundries.
In addition, Nvidia's cooperation with local manufacturers in Asian countries may also be in response to the US government's new chip export restriction policy. During his recent trip to Southeast Asia, Huang Renxun has repeatedly emphasized that the Chinese market has historically accounted for about 20% of Nvidia's total sales, and Nvidia will continue to develop a series of new products that comply with the U.S. government's regulations on exporting high-end chips to China.
In October last year, the U.S. government announced the implementation of initial export restrictions on artificial intelligence chips. Since NVIDIA is unable to provide the A100 and H100 artificial intelligence processors to the Chinese market, it exclusively supplies the A800 and H800 to the Chinese market to comply with relevant policies.
According to the Global Times, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a series of new chip export restrictions on October 17, expanding the definition of advanced artificial intelligence chips and imposing additional licensing requirements on chip products shipped to more than 40 countries to avoid resale to China. The new restrictions are set to come into effect on November 16.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning emphasized at a regular press conference that China has repeatedly stated its position on the U.S.’s chip export controls to China. The United States should stop politicizing, tooling, and weaponizing economic, trade, and science and technology issues, and stop disrupting the stability of the global production and supply chain. China will pay close attention to relevant developments and resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests.