Nvidia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang has received backlash for comments he made on May 29, 2024, during a trip to Taiwan.
According to South China Morning Post, Huang gave an impromptu interview while touring a Taiwanese night market.
The interview was aired by Taiwan's Chinese Television System on May 29.
During the interview, Huang talked about Taiwan's significance in the global tech industry and said:
"Taiwan is one of the most important countries in the world. It is at the centre of the electronics industry. The computer industry is built because of Taiwan. And so, very very important country."
Huang's use of the word "country" drew the ire of Chinese netizens and media, over the fact that he could be interpreted as implying that Taiwan is an independent country.
China regards the self-governing Taiwan as a breakaway province, while many Taiwanese regard Taiwan as an independent nation.
China recently held "punishment" military drills around Taiwan on May 23, in response to the May 20 election of President William Lai Ching Te, who is perceived by some in China as sympathetic to Taiwanese separatism.
"I wasn't making a geopolitical comment"
On Jun. 3, Central News Agency, a Taiwanese wire service, highlighted Huang's remark.
The article said that Huang's comment was not reported in Chinese media at the time, though some netizens had picked up on the remark.
The Taipei Times reported on Jun. 8 that Huang clarified his remark to the media.
Huang said:
“I wasn’t making a geopolitical comment, but thanking all of our technology partners here for all their support and contributions to the industry.”
Furore amongst Chinese media
All the same, the comment caused a furore among some Chinese media and netizens.
A Chinese media outlet, Guancha.cn, published a piece on Jun. 6 criticising Huang for the remark, according to The Taipei Times.
The article in Guancha.cn reportedly said, “Perhaps he has gotten carried away and it has made him arrogant."
“While it was unclear whether his words were a mistake or held a hidden agenda, many Taiwanese media firms responded to them as if they were treasure,” the article added, according to The Taipei Times.
Hu Xijin, a Chinese journalist who was previously editor-in-chief of Chinese Communist Party-linked Global Times, accused Huang of demonstrating a lack of geopolitical awareness in his remark in an article on Jun. 8.
Hu claimed that Huang's remark undermined globalisation, which a multinational corporation like Nvidia relies on.
A "rockstar" CEO
Nvidia, a producer of graphics processing units (GPUs), is currently the second-most valuable company in the world, after Microsoft.
Huang, a Taiwanese-born American, has become a bit of a "popstar" thanks to Nvidia's rapid ascendancy with the recent boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
Huang was visiting Taiwan in late May as part of a visit to Computex, one of the biggest tech conventions in the world.
There, he was mobbed by fans and received a "rockstar" reception:
Taiwan's semiconductor industry is vital to Nvidia's success. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a Taiwanese chipmaker, is the sole production partner for Nvidia's AI chips.
Top photo from Taiwan News Formosa TV/YouTube.