Source: Cai Lian She Author: Liu Rui

With its share price falling by 29.5% this year, the market has questioned Musk's multi-line operations strategy and its impact on the company's future. As CEO of Tesla, Musk also manages SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Co., as well as his recently acquired social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and AI startup xAI.$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$With AI chip giants such as Nvidia making a fortune in the AI wave, the chip contract manufacturer who collaborates with Nvidia$Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$also intends to get a bigger share of the pie.

TSMC is going to raise prices to Nvidia.

After the TSMC annual shareholder meeting held in Hsinchu on Tuesday, TSMC's newly appointed chairman Wei Zhejia hinted that he is considering raising the price of the company's AI chip contract manufacturing services.

He also said that he has discussed this issue with Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun.

Wei Zhejia said:

"I did indeed complain to 'Mr. 3 Trillion' (referring to Huang Renxun, whose net worth is estimated by Taiwanese media to be NT $3 trillion) that his products are too expensive," Wei said. "I think these products are indeed valuable, but I am also considering showing (him) our value."

TSMC is the sole production partner for Nvidia's most advanced AI training chips, including its latest Blackwell series.

Wei Zhejia said that it is natural to ask for higher production costs considering Nvidia chip prices, as well as TSMC's important role in their production.

TSMC plays an important role in the AI wave.

Huang Renxun is currently attending the Taipei International Computer Show. Just last Sunday, Huang Renxun made a passionate speech on the eve of the exhibition, claiming that artificial intelligence can usher in a new industrial revolution and bring about a $100 trillion business opportunity.

Wei Zhejia emphasized on Tuesday that TSMC plays an important role in this AI boom, as it not only produces AI chips for Nvidia, but also produces all the latest AI chips for Qualcomm, AMD and Intel.

He said the company is still trying to assess the level of future demand for AI and how many chip factories will be needed to meet that demand.

But he also added that he does not agree with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's previous comment that "we need to add dozens more wafer fabs," calling the prediction "too radical, I don't believe it."

"We are also very aggressively trying to understand the real demand for all of AI....TSMC is discussing this issue with everyone, because everyone who wants to make AI chips will come to us to discuss it. So we are the only ones collecting all the information," Wei said. "Then we will analyze it...and decide how many production lines we should build."

Editor/Lambor