Jensen Huang has spent years maintaining a personal relationship with Taiwan, his native island.
On each visit, he eats at local restaurants, speaks comfortably in Taiwanese Hokkien as well as Mandarin, poses for endless selfies and signs autographs – including at least once on the chest of a female fan – turning routine business trips into media events.
To many here, Nvidia’s success seems partly their own, as evidenced by soaring stock prices in Taiwan and booming export figures driven by the huge demand for AI.
And Huang – who was born in the city of Tainan and spent the first five years of his life on the island – is one of them. He widely praised Taiwan and gave it massive global visibility.
Tim Culpan, a technology journalist who has known Huang for more than 25 years, says the case itself is not necessarily what troubles Taiwanese people most; this is the reported link to Chinese intelligence.
So far, it’s been a mutually beneficial relationship. Taiwan produces the advanced chips that support Nvidia’s dominance, while facing daily pressure from Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory. The possibility that someone close to Huang worked for Chinese intelligence touches a particularly sensitive point.
There is also money at stake. Many Taiwanese own shares in Nvidia or its local suppliers. TSMC – the island’s jewel, which produces more than 90% of the world’s advanced electronic chips – alone accounts for about 40% of Taiwan’s benchmark stock index.
Nvidia is also investing more than $1 billion in a new headquarters in Taipei, scheduled to open in 2030 — a major bet on Taiwan that city officials say remains on track despite the scandal.
Huang’s popularity will not disappear overnight. But in Taiwan, where business, technology and domestic security are inseparable, this is no longer just a story about his private life.
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