How Nvidia’s SEA blitz can cement its AI chips supremacy

In the past 12 months, the CEOs of Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia – three of the world’s most valuable tech companies – made swift tours of Southeast Asia. The region is the fastest-growing digital economy, after all, and a neutral party in escalating US-China tensions. No wonder it is drawing the attention of Big Tech. 

Among them, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stands out, and it’s not for his rockstar outfit. 

He covered Southeast Asia’s five biggest economies in three trips. And instead of pouring billions of dollars into these countries like his peers did, Huang is putting money into his pocket by selling Nvidia’s advanced chips. 

See also: Charting big tech’s $70b spending spree in Southeast Asia

After the rise of ChatGPT, many governments now want local AI capabilities, Jeremie Ontiveros of research firm SemiAnalysis points out.

Huang is certainly angling to profit from sovereign AI, which refers to the ability of countries to develop and harness AI using domestic computing infrastructure, data, and workforce. He has promoted the idea to government leaders across  Southeast Asia.

And for nation-states to build GPU clusters to create sovereign AI, they seem to have no choice but to rely on Nvidia, the absolute king of AI chips.

From Indonesia to Singapore, the top companies have signed deals to use Nvidia chips for their data centers or AI factories. While local media often describe Nvidia’s presence in the region as an “investment,” specific details about the US-based chipmaker’s financial contributions have not been publicly disclosed.

“Nvidia views them as key customers and helps them in setting up their GPU cluster,” says Ontiveros.