“It is no surprise that two Taiwanese Americans are at the center of the global semiconductor industry.”
Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and author of the book ‘Semiconductor Wars’, which analyzes the power struggle between the United States and China over hegemony in the semiconductor market, said in a CNN interview on the 4th (local time) that he is related to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (CEO, 60). and Lisa Su, CEO of AMD (54), attributed their success to Taiwan’s unique culture. Professor Miller said, “There is no place where family, education, and business networks are as closely connected as Taiwan,” and believed that both men had a significant influence in becoming managers of a global semiconductor company.
CEO Su is the granddaughter of CEO Hwang’s maternal uncle. He mentioned Hwang at an event in 2020 and said, “We are distant relatives.” Huang immigrated from Taiwan to the United States when he was 9 years old, and Sue was 3 years old.
Recently, the two CEOs are engaged in a fierce battle in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market. In particular, latecomer AMD’s pursuit is fierce. AMD unveiled its advanced AI graphics processing unit (GPU) ‘MI300X’ in June this year, challenging Nvidia, which controls more than 80% of the market. AMD’s sales in the third quarter of this year (July-September) also exceeded market expectations ($5.7 billion) at $5.8 billion (approximately 7.83 trillion won). At the performance announcement at the time, Su expected, “By 2024, the AI semiconductor field alone will generate sales of more than $2 billion.”
However, Nvidia, the leader in this market, has a strong position. Thanks to the generative AI craze, Nvidia’s stock price has risen 208% this year. It is far ahead of AMD’s stock price increase of 73% during the same period.
Semiconductors from both companies are used in a variety of fields, including electric vehicles and game consoles such as the PlayStation. “Anyone with access to the Internet is likely to have access to hundreds of NVIDIA and AMD semiconductors,” Miller said.
The hegemonic conflict between the U.S. and China and the resulting U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports to China are acting as an obstacle to growth for both companies. NVIDIA has been concerned that the ban on sales of American GPUs since US export restrictions began in October last year could actually accelerate the development of China’s semiconductor industry by encouraging Chinese semiconductor companies’ desire for self-reliance.
AMD also said in August, “We will consider producing low-end AI semiconductors for the Chinese market in consideration of U.S. regulations.” Although the export route for high-performance semiconductors to China has been blocked, low-performance semiconductors can still be exported, which is interpreted to mean that they will not miss out on the Chinese market in any way.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.