EP3-37 | What Makes AI Leaders Different? The Taiwan Connection Behind Jensen Huang and the AI Boom

EP3-37 | What Makes AI Leaders Different? The Taiwan Connection Behind Jensen Huang and the AI Boom

From Startup Island TAIWAN Podcast by Meet Global @Business Next Media

May 11, 2026 · 23 min · Season 3 · Episode 37

About this episode

This episode explores the connections between Jensen Huang and the AI industry, highlighting insights from the NVIDIA GTC conference.

NVIDIA GTC has outgrown the label of "tech conference" — it's now the annual convergence point of the entire AI ecosystem, where chips, software, robotics, and autonomous systems share the same floor, with an energy so dense that finding a parking spot takes two hours. In this episode, Silicon Valley-based veteran tech journalist and consultant Michelle Cheng joins host Uly fresh from GTC to give us a firsthand read on what the conference signals for the industry ahead. Michelle traces the deep ties between Jensen Huang and TSMC founder Morris Chang, and how Jensen's visits to Taiwan consistently bring the entire AI supply chain together at what the media has dubbed the "trillion-dollar banquet." Drawing on her experience covering Silicon Valley through the optical networking era, she maps today's AI infrastructure boom against the longer arc of industry cycles — demand never disappears, it just takes time to mature. She captures the mood of GTC with a drink called "Innovation Cocktail" she picked up at an after party: a blend of excitement and anticipation that defines where Silicon Valley stands right now. The episode closes on Jensen's own framing from the keynote —…

People in this episode

Host: Uly

Guest: Michelle Cheng

Topics covered

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NVIDIA, TSMC

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