For fans, the co-founder and leader of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant – now the third-most valuable company in the United States and key to the AI revolution – is only getting his due.
“He’s just such an inspiration – he’s one of us,” said engineer Hol Chang, 38, as he waited to hear Huang speak at Computex this week. “What he is doing will change the world.”
“He’s like a pop star. That’s how we view him,” said Amanda Shih, who works in finance and was happy to have seen him at Computex after missing out on a ticket to a speech he gave at Taipei’s elite National Taiwan University on Sunday (Jun 2).
His fame in Taiwan prompts bemusement from Nvidia colleagues and executives in the chip industry. Others note this intense interest never happens in the US. In Silicon Valley, where Nvidia is based, he is sometimes but not always recognised.
Huang, 61, who was born in the southern city of Tainan, Taiwan’s historic capital, before emigrating to the US at the age of nine, has returned the love.
He has hobnobbed with the likes of Morris Chang, the retired founder of Taiwanese chip behemoth TSMC at the popular Ningxia Night Market but has also taken time to meet with ordinary admirers.
He has patiently stopped to pose for selfies, answer questions about what he has eaten and sign autographs including a less conventional signature request from one female fan to sign her top across her chest.
On Saturday night, Huang threw the first ball at a baseball game in Taipei and apologised to the crowd for his poor Mandarin which he said he had only learned in the US.
