Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has declared that companies should pay their workers "as much as possible," speaking on Tuesday ahead of a visit to South Korea, where Samsung Electronics recently averted a strike by reaching a bonus agreement with its union.
Huang, who leads the US artificial intelligence hardware giant now recognized as the world's most valuable company, was questioned about the Samsung dispute during a news conference in Taipei, where a major technology expo is being held this week.
"I'm not an expert in that area," he said. "I think people should be paid as much as possible. Ask my employees -- literally, I do that."
"I pay my employees as much as I can," he added. "But that's just what I do. It doesn't make this right."
The AI boom has propelled Nvidia's stock price by more than 1,170 percent over the past five years, turning many employees with stock options into millionaires almost overnight.
Samsung, a manufacturer of memory chips essential for AI data centers, has also experienced a surge in value and profits as global demand skyrockets.
This has fueled frustration among staff, and under the union deal, approximately 60 percent of Samsung's domestic workforce is eligible to receive a bonus of roughly $330,000 this year, based on a market estimate of operating profit.
Huang is scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday and is expected to meet with companies including SK Group and Hyundai to discuss robotics and so-called "physical AI."
He will also appear on one of the country's most popular TV talk shows, "You Quiz on the Block," and is anticipated to enjoy Korean barbecue with leaders of the nation's top tech firms.
On Monday, before the start of Taiwan's Computex expo, Nvidia unveiled a powerful laptop chip for Windows machines, staking its claim in the market for next-generation PCs integrated with AI technology.
This move challenges competitors like Apple, AMD, and Intel -- whose CEO Lip-Bu Tan is scheduled to speak Tuesday at Computex -- in the consumer PC domain.
Huang said Tuesday that Nvidia is "supply constrained" although "we have enough supply for very robust growth," referring to the range of materials used to manufacture computer chips, from silicon wafers to advanced memory components.
Taiwan is home to hardware production giants TSMC and Foxconn, and last week Huang said Nvidia would increase investment there to $150 billion a year, up from $100 billion, to "fuel an incredible ecosystem here."
Opening Computex on Tuesday, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te said that rising international investment reflects the island's "technological strength, industrial efficiency, and the trust built up in our democratic system."
