Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is now a geopolitical superstar. It comes with risks.
Crowds and rock star-like excitement follow the charismatic CEO’s every step, but doing business in sensitive regions such as China and the Persian Gulf states brings its challenges.
TAIPEI—The American president called him “my friend," Saudi Arabia bought hundreds of thousands of his chips and, in the land of his birth, he was hailed as “the leader of team Taiwan."
With a visit to Taipei this week, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang capped a whirlwind month of travel that marked him as not just a business tycoon, but one of the world’s most powerful geopolitical forces.
Everyone wants a piece of the charismatic CEO and his coveted chips, seen as the gold standard for advanced artificial-intelligence computing. Investors celebrated his global coming-out party by pushing Nvidia shares up 40% over the past month. The stock’s swoon in January is a distant memory and the company, with a market capitalization of $3.3 trillion, is again within striking distance of global No. 1.
But international fame carries risks too—Huang does business in sensitive regions such as China and the Persian Gulf states.
“His fortune and misfortune is that he created the most valuable technological input of the decade," said Barath Harithas, a senior fellow at Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The danger is that his visibility becomes a liability. He could end up the fall guy if things unravel in the Gulf, and then face political heat for any perceived overreach in China."
Huang’s processors and investment spending have the power to change countries’ fates, and the 62-year-old billionaire has himself been changed by his power. He has donned a business suit and tie for meetings with world leaders, shedding his customary leather jacket, and added praise for politicians to his salesman’s patter about tokens and terabytes.
“Without the president’s leadership, his policies, his support and, very importantly, his strong encouragement," Huang said while standing beside President Trump at the White House on April 30, “frankly, manufacturing in the United States wouldn’t have accelerated to this pace."
Trump returned the favor two weeks later by giving a shout out to the CEO in a speech in Saudi Arabia. “I see my friend is here, Jensen, that’s very good," Trump said. “He’s putting in $500 billion," the president went on, referring to Nvidia’s commitment to build AI supercomputers in the U.S.
Since mid-April, Huang has been flying across the world, unveiling new investments and striking deals. In the Middle East last week, Huang met Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and agreed to sell Nvidia’s powerful AI processors to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
In Taiwan this week, the location of Nvidia’s most important suppliers, Huang drew loud cheers and praise from the island’s president when he announced on Monday the construction of a new Nvidia office building and plans for Taiwan’s first AI supercomputer.
Crowds and rock star-like excitement followed his every step. Huang, a U.S. citizen, was born on the island before moving to the U.S. as a child.
When Huang was due to turn up at an Nvidia partner’s booth at an industry conference on Tuesday, hordes of fans started to gather at the venue as early as an hour ahead. As he walked toward the booth, fans began pressing against the barricades, calling out “Jensen, I love you!" and reaching out to touch the executive.
In a speech, Young Liu, chairman of Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Foxconn, called Huang “the leader of team Taiwan" for his efforts to build up Taiwan’s AI industry.
In return, Huang called Taiwan the “epicenter of the world’s computing industry."
Huang has pulled off the feat of staying friends with both the U.S. and China, despite tensions between the two superpowers.
In early April, he attended a $1 million-a-head dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and afterward some inside Nvidia were confident the company could keep selling its H20 chips in China, which had been tailored to comply with earlier U.S. regulations. Instead, the U.S. said a few days later it would restrict the sale of the H20 chips, which led Nvidia to take a $5.5 billion charge in the first quarter.
Within days of the new rule, Huang flew to Beijing and publicly reassured senior Chinese officials the company would “unwaveringly serve" the market there. Later, he met the mayor of Shanghai and left with the city’s blessing to open a new research and development center there.
Huang has repeatedly said China will be a powerhouse in global AI development and it would be folly for Nvidia to neglect the market. Each time new U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors have been introduced, Nvidia has adapted by downgrading its chips’ specs to continue selling to Chinese customers.
Lian Jye Su, an analyst at Omdia covering AI, said Nvidia was trying to avoid picking sides between the U.S. and China.
“Nvidia doesn’t have the luxury of staying neutral, and can only try its best to minimize the political fallout," Su added.
Last week, the Commerce Department put out guidance against the use of American AI chips to train Chinese models and warned against the diversion of such silicon to China.
Harithas of CSIS said the perception of an American executive courting China ran against sentiment in Washington. “If he leans too far toward China with even a neutered chip variant, he risks crossing a red line, triggering public rebuke, or worse, legal blowback," he said.
Write to Liza Lin at liza.lin@wsj.com and Raffaele Huang at raffaele.huang@wsj.com
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