Nvidia CEO Pledges to Make Japan a Priority for AI Processor Development
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday that his company is doing its best to ship its AI processors to Japan amid extremely high market demand.
Japan is rushing to rebuild its once world-leading semiconductor infrastructure and catch up with the development of artificial intelligence technology. Graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by the US company Nvidia dominate the artificial intelligence market.
“Demand is very high, but I promised the prime minister that we will do our best to prioritize Japan’s requirements for GPUs,” Huang told reporters at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s official residence in Tokyo.
Huang’s visit comes less than two weeks after Japan approved an extra budget that included about 2 trillion yen ($13.60 billion) in chip investment.
Some of the funds will be used to support Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC and chip foundry company Rapidus, which aims to produce high-end chips on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
“Japan’s semiconductor industry is now starting to grow and support, able to produce GPUs,” Huang said.
“Countries like Japan understand that you have to own your own data, build your own AI factories and produce your own AI,” he added.
