Nvidia to Spend $150 Billion a Year in Taiwan, Calling It the 'Epicentre' of AI

Nvidia will invest roughly $150 billion each year in Taiwan, CEO Jensen Huang said on May 27, describing the island as the centre of the global AI supply chain. It is a sharp increase from the $10 to $15 billion the company spent annually four to five years ago and the roughly $100 billion it is spending now.

Huang made the announcement at a launch event for Nvidia's new Taipei headquarters, a building named Constellation that will break ground late this year and open by 2030 with space for up to 4,000 engineers. "Taiwan is the epicentre of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes, this is where the systems are made, this is where AI supercomputers were created," he told around 1,000 employees, family members and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an.

The commitment deepens Nvidia's ties to TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker and the manufacturer of Nvidia's most advanced AI processors. It also reinforces relationships with Foxconn, Wistron and Quanta Computer, all of which assemble AI servers and infrastructure. Huang did not specify how many years the $150 billion annual spend will continue.

Taiwan's Taiex stock index closed at a record high following the announcement, with TSMC shares rising 1.3 percent. The market response came after Nvidia's quarterly report last week showed revenue of $81.6 billion, an 85 percent jump from a year earlier. Huang also raised energy concerns, telling Mayor Chiang that Taiwan would need significantly more electricity because "AI labor needs electricity".

The announcement arrives a week before Computex, Taiwan's largest tech expo, and days after AMD said it would invest more than $10 billion in the island's AI sector. It underscores the extent to which the AI industry depends on a concentrated manufacturing base in Taiwan.