Visiting Taiwan w/ Jensen Huang | Lex Fridman
In a Nutshell
Jensen Huang guides Lex Fridman through Taiwan’s night markets and semiconductor ecosystem, revealing how Taiwan’s engineering culture and TSMC partnership enable 90%+ of the world’s advanced chips. The core message is that technology leadership depends on shared prosperity and interdependence rather than export controls or isolation, with the US-Taiwan flywheel of innovation, manufacturing, and mutual success being the sustainable path forward.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Jensen Huang is showing Lex Fridman around Taiwan, visiting night markets and trying local food including the famous oyster pancake. This marks Lex's first visit to Taiwan.
Lex is visiting Taiwan to spend time with Jensen Huang, CEO and founder of NVIDIA, the world's most valuable company and one of the most consequential in human civilization history. The trip also includes attending Computex, a major conference in Taipei with a sea of engineers.
Taiwan is an island that's two-thirds mountains and responsible for more than 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductors. Every computer, smartphone, GPU, and AI data center depends on this location, which is virtually impossible to replicate anywhere in the world.
Lex draws parallels between Taiwan's semiconductor industry and ancient mysteries like Göbekli Tepe or Egyptian pyramids. Taiwan's dominance stems from culture, education systems that prize engineering, and has major technological and geopolitical implications. The goal is to compete while remaining friends through understanding culture and history, respecting each other, and working together through interlinked economies, technologies, and supply chains.
Jensen maintains humility after years of success and genuinely listens to people, recognizing everyone as human beings. Jensen is also a foodie, making him an ideal guide for Taiwanese cuisine.
Jensen introduces Lex to various people throughout the trip. People recognize both Jensen and Lex, with Jensen noting that when you're known by one name like "Lex" or "Jensen," you've made it, comparing it to Beyoncé.
Jensen demonstrates NVIDIA's new liquid-cooled technology. The Grace Blackwell system is now 100% liquid cooled, up from 80% in the previous generation. Assembly time has been reduced from two hours to five minutes. The Vera CPU delivers 1.8x performance over x86.
Jensen explains the shift in CPU economics: hyperscale CPUs were designed to rent cores based on dollars per core, but AI generates and sells tokens, requiring maximum speed through the loop to generate tokens as quickly as possible.
Jensen describes AI as a "five-layer cake" while sharing conference food. The discussion includes street food experiences and Computex activities.
Jensen is treated like the Beatles in the 1960s at conferences, with Lex noting the comparison though Jensen downplays it, saying the Beatles had actual talent. Jensen danced on stage during the event.
SK Hynix is a trillion-dollar company with tight memory supply. They invented LPDDR memory for data centers, offering twice the bandwidth at half the power. Jensen appreciates wabi-sabi - the beauty of imperfection.
Various generations of NVIDIA GPUs are displayed, including the 1080 generation Titan and Titan RTX, representing the evolution of graphics hardware.
Jensen and Lex discuss mechanical keyboards, with Jensen noting that in the future, voice control will dominate but acknowledging that speed isn't everything and sometimes you need to pause and think.
Jensen was nervous before his Computex keynote, as he always is for public speaking. He doesn't take it for granted and wants to do a good job. The keynote had no teleprompter, and he didn't know exactly what words he would say.
To build and sell several trillion dollars of computing over the next several years, Taiwan's entire ecosystem must participate. Every company will need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars. The keynote aimed to inspire companies to understand and benefit from this opportunity.
Jensen emphasizes not forgetting roots and keeping feet on the ground no matter how high you rise. Gamers are among the most passionate humans, and NVIDIA hardware has provided some of the happiest moments in many lives.
Jensen and Lex sign a FIRST Robotics shirt for 2026, noting that young engineers building robots will likely run on NVIDIA technology.
The group enjoys Taiwanese beer and various night market foods including noodles, sweet potato balls, and other local specialties. Jensen mentions the best part of the tour is the night market experience.
It's inspiring to see engineers treated like rock stars since they build the world but don't often receive deserved recognition. Jensen serves as inspiration to millions of young people considering engineering careers.
Jensen's China trip was chaotic, with downtown Beijing turning into mayhem. He became a poster child for restaurants within about half an hour, appearing on the web for every restaurant visited.
Both China and Taiwan exhibit nonstop humility among engineers who are changing the world. There's no arrogance whatsoever among these young engineers.
During the AI boom, the US has its best chance to invest in the grid, sustainable energy, and manufacturing. The enormous demand means manufacturing can be afforded anywhere, including the United States. AI and robotics in manufacturing present the perfect opportunity to reindustrialize the US.
TSMC is sending engineers and investing substantial money to build fabs in Arizona. Taiwan is a strategic partner in reindustrializing the United States from a technology perspective.
K.T. Li, part of the Science and Industries Ministry in the 1950s, had a vision to bring science, technology, and manufacturing to Taiwan. His vision compelled Morris Chang to return. Philips, the parent company that spun off TSMC and ASML, was attracted to Taiwan. Philips was the GE of Europe in consumer electronics.
IBM opened specifications for IBM Compatible Chipsets, including motherboard chips like cache controller, memory controller, interrupt controller, and VGA controller. Smart engineers used these specifications to design chipsets manufactured at TSMC and UMC. This became the beginning of the PC industry, enabling companies like Compaq, IBM, and Michael Dell to source motherboards from Taiwan.
Michael Dell bought motherboards from Taiwan, assembled them into PCs, and licensed operating systems from Microsoft. Dell has a long-standing relationship with Taiwan.
A woman from Taiwan noted she learned to spell CoWoS before Gucci, illustrating how engineering is valued in the culture. Jensen brought "sexy back" to technology.
Jensen loves night markets. The group tries various foods including fresh items straight from the oven, mystery balls made of sweet potato that are empty inside and crunchy outside like sweet potato marshmallows, and the famous Taiwanese oyster pancake.
Jensen shares a childhood memory from the night market when he was almost five years old. While looking for a restroom, he approached a cook cleaning a knife, and the cook accidentally cut him across the face. His father rushed him to the hospital. Despite this incident, Jensen always had fond memories of the night market because the food was so good and he loved the place.
Jensen observes that people at night markets work hard for a living but still want to share with others. Their profit margins are minimal, yet they give generously out of kindness. This represents the Taiwanese way, and it's nice to watch craftspeople at work, many of whom have been doing their craft for years.
The conversation continues at a Taiwanese night market with detailed discussion of various foods. The pork sausage and bun are highlighted as particularly good. The fried potato balls are mentioned as amazing. The fluffy rice cake with brown sugar on top is described as magic when handed directly to someone. The noodle with hot sauce is praised, along with a white ball that has fish cake on the outside and pork inside, giving it a QQ texture.
Jensen visited Shanghai for MiniMax and other AI companies. He also went to Hangzhou for Unitree robotics. The robotics companies are described as full of humility. AI companies in China are said to be compute starved, which forces them to develop incredible architectures that are highly efficient.
Constraints is the mother of invention.
Taiwan has become world-class in whiskey production. Kavalan is mentioned as a good brand.
The scene moves to an NVIDIA employee gathering in Taiwan. Many people traveled from across the world to attend. The table is described as a traditional five-star prepared feast. Jensen is seen feeding the press and ensuring everyone has what they need.
The fundamental generosity and capacity to help other people is identified as the reason why Taiwan's companies are at the center of the global ecosystem. This generosity is what makes them the supply chain for the world. The combination of generosity with willingness to work very hard is emphasized.
A 17-year NVIDIA employee is interviewed at the event. The conversation notes the presence of air conditioning in a specific spot created by a refrigerator.
The sauce with pepper on top is highlighted as amazing. The conversation continues with various food items being sampled.
Jensen shares a story about dating in college when he had no money. He explains that his parents didn't give allowance, stating that if you need money and you're dying, you call home. He noticed his girlfriend had an allowance of 25 cents a week, which they used to play video games.
The conversation shifts to video games, with Jensen and Lex discussing their love for gaming. Various games are mentioned including Pong, Mario, Street Fighter, Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls series, SimCity, and Grand Theft Auto.
The group shares braised pig's feet along with eggs and tofu. The pig's feet are described as an acquired taste but actually tasting fine once acquired.
The conversation includes discussion about branding issues, noting that NVIDIA was often misspelled. The question of whether America does Taiwanese food well is raised, with the answer being no but it's starting to do better.
Jensen mentions using Perplexity when learning about new things and new companies.
The discussion addresses how Jensen maintains humility despite millions of people looking up to him. He explains that he doesn't take it that way because people have always been nice to him, and he was always nice to other people. He shares homework in school and wants to see other people succeed, even colleagues at other companies.
If you just celebrate others and you want them to succeed, somehow you succeed more.
The concept that goodwill is not a zero-sum game is discussed. The ripple effect of wanting others to succeed is emphasized.
Jensen presents his views on export controls, arguing that they are not the way America should win. He steelmans both sides of the argument.
Arguments Against Export Controls
If something is valuable and a force multiplier like rare earth, computer technology, or knowledge, then depriving others enhances one's position. This works for physical things like refined rare earth, bullets, and bombs.
Arguments For Alternative Approach
Jensen argues that for long-term national security and domestic tranquility, prosperity is the best approach. The safest countries are the richest countries. The United States is powerful because of extraordinary wealth that came with extraordinary technology, creating a flywheel effect.
The flywheel concept is explained as the combination of technology leadership and wealth. Customer engagements and installed base drive more consumption of technology, which drives more wealth, which allows scaling technology faster. The flywheel is what causes companies and countries to stay ahead.
Jensen advocates being extremely selective about access to certain technologies while balancing this with optimizing for the technology and economic flywheel.
The open question for America and humanity is whether America flourishes if the flywheel includes China or doesn't include China. There's a line between competing as friends versus becoming enemies competing.
Jensen states that everything should be done to avoid conflict while still competing. Interdependence through shared hardware, software, universities, friendships, and scientific collaborations makes it harder to divide peoples and have global conflict.
AI is described as not just a model but a whole stack of technologies. Different countries have leadership in different parts of the stack, such as energy.
America is described as having the most innovative people with big moonshot ideas. NVIDIA, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are cited as evidence. The global flywheel advantage comes from the fact that the vast majority of the world responds to English, making American tech stacks fairly deployable throughout the world.
Closing off from the rest of the world has a real cost - losing the platform reach advantage. The flywheel is described as delicate and capable of stopping quickly.
Every country has the right to decide how to use technologies they've created as part of their national advantage. The goal is to have the largest possible flywheel and platform reach to sustain economic and technology leadership.
The conversation emphasizes that all humans across the world have more in common than differences. Understanding, collaboration, friendship, and friendly competition are advocated over division and enmity.
Jensen takes Lex to another night market, described as even crazier. They visit what is believed to be the best location. Various foods are sampled including chicken and egg crepe with sausage.
The chicken is described as really good with almost a barbecue smoky sauce. The use of eggs in various dishes is highlighted as amazing. In Southeast Asia, egg is added to everything as the cheapest source of protein.
Jensen describes watching videos on AI and fried rice, geopolitics, dogs, panda bears, and otters. He mentions watching geopolitics and then going directly to pandas and otters to recover.
A dish Jensen's mom made practically every week is mentioned, featuring fresh ginger in soup. Asian food is described as being all about the soup.
The discussion covers cultural differences in food etiquette. In some cultures, not eating everything is rude, while in others eating everything is rude. In Taiwanese culture, generosity is more important than appreciation for the food.
The concept of figuring out the objective function based on country is discussed. In France, one would need to eat everything, which is why dinners last three hours.
Lex is described as loving Taiwan more than anyone, with the group reciprocating the affection.
Various street foods are sampled including egg crepe with sausage described as a Taiwanese-style corn dog. Ice cream with rice paper, cilantro, and nuts is tried, described as soft and chewy despite seeming like it shouldn't work.
The group transitions from sampling to actually eating, with ice cream being particularly needed after the spicy foods.
Taiwan produces semiconductors and fruit. The group samples green mangoes, which are ripe despite their green color, similar to an apple and pear hybrid. They try taro balls and pork floss, noting that Taiwan struggles with marketing due to naming issues like "pork floss" and "bubble gum in America."
The onion pancakes are described as 90% oil and 10% egg. Lex admits gaining approximately 10 pounds on the trip. Jensen notes that Lex is disciplined and only tastes rather than eats full portions, while he himself eats everything.
They enjoyed pig's feet despite the branding issue with the name. Jensen contrasts this with OpenAI's clear naming conventions versus random number assignments where "as long as the numbers go up, it's all better."
They sample sesame balls with everything added, including tofu underneath that is chewy and doughy on the outside. The group discusses grass jelly, clarifying that it's not made by squeezing juice from plants but is a real substance that isn't too sweet.
Jensen introduces the Taiwanese texture term QQ, describing bouncy, chewy elasticity in foods like sesame balls and udon noodles. The best noodles have this QQ quality with some elasticity and chewiness.
They try sweet and sour powder on pears. The group samples durian, which smells grotesque but tastes good - an acquired taste that Jensen loves.
Jensen explains how the relationship with Morris Chang and TSMC began in 1996 when NVIDIA was looking for a foundry. The PC revolution had started with Windows 95's release, and there was massive demand for chipsets.
They drink cold soy bean milk, noting that most Asians are lactose intolerant. The breakfast includes both sweet and hot salty versions.
The meal includes sticky rice with pork floss, pickled vegetables, and eggs. They also have turnip cake and discuss branding issues with various dishes.
They eat soup dumplings, noting the mystery of how soup gets inserted inside. The challenge is picking them up without breaking them.
When NVIDIA returned to Taiwan in 1996, the PC revolution was accelerating. The fabless semiconductor industry was born during this period. Major players included Cirrus Logic, S3, Weitek, and Western Digital.
Foundry capacity was extremely limited. Companies had to license their technology to foundries to gain access. SGS-Thomson was approached first but wasn't willing to take NVIDIA's business.
TSMC was a $300 million company at the time. Jensen called their US office using the Yellow Pages but got a recording. He left a message about NVIDIA being a startup building computer graphics chips.
After writing a letter to Morris Chang, Jensen received a call around 6:00-6:30 PM from Morris himself. This was significant because Morris was willing to call back a startup that might not survive.
Jensen visited both TSMC and UMC, which were literally across the street from each other. He chose TSMC because Morris was upfront about limitations, saying "we can't do that" to many requests, demonstrating strong core values.
Morris emphasized corporate governance, integrity, partnership, and long-term thinking. He promised Jensen they would "jump through hoops" for NVIDIA, which they've done for 30 years.
Jensen explains that choosing a foundry partner is about selecting who to work with rather than what to buy, since building chips together involves unknowns that can't be fully specified in advance. The relationship has lasted 30 years through "rough justice" - sometimes one side benefits more, sometimes the other.
Jensen applies the same philosophy to employees, avoiding ironclad contracts in favor of mutual choice to work together. He emphasizes that everyone needs to know he wants them to win, and this attitude comes through in all business dealings.
Last year, Jensen's entire supply chain's stock price went up 300% while NVIDIA's stayed flat. He considers this a good outcome because the platform is so large that everyone can rise to meet it.
Jensen advocates always leaving something on the table and thinking about partners' sustainability and success. This philosophy applies to family, employees, partners, and customers equally.
Keep Lex Fridman in your library
Save the videos and channels worth coming back to, and find them again in one place.
