Computex 2026: Jensen Huang casts Taiwan as epicenter of the AI revolution

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang laid out a sweeping vision of an AI-driven future at Computex 2026, portraying Taiwan not merely as a manufacturing hub but as the indispensable foundation of next generation of computing.

AI enters its commercial era

If previous editions of Computex chronicled the rise of AI, this year’s event suggested that AI has entered a new phase altogether: commercialization at scale.

Opening both Computex 2026 and Nvidia’s GTC Taipei conference, Huang argued that AI is no longer an experimental technology or a cost center.

He described a world in which computing power itself has become a source of revenue, driven by autonomous AI agents capable of reasoning, using tools, and performing tasks with minimal human intervention.

Huang said the economics of computing have undergone a profound transformation. In the emerging AI era, tokens have become the fundamental unit of value creation — a revenue-generating output rather than merely a measure of computational activity.

Because tokens can be monetized, AI companies are incentivized to generate ever-greater volumes of them, driving the construction of increasingly powerful AI factories.

AI factories have become the world's largest infrastructure project for the next decade, he said.

In Huang’s view, this dynamic explains the surging demand for computing capacity in Taiwan and the robust growth being experienced across the broader AI supply chain.

The coming age of AI agents, could, contrary to popular belief, usher in a golden era for the software industry, he said, provided that software is redesigned in a form that autonomous agents can readily understand, access, and utilize. Such a shift would represent a fundamental breakthrough in how software is developed and consumed.

Speaking about Nvidia’s next-generation AI platform, Vera Rubin, which has now entered full-scale production, Huang said the commercialization of AI has transformed computing infrastructure into a productive asset capable of generating measurable economic returns.

Global demand for compute remains exceptionally strong, with computing power emerging as one of the principal constraints on AI deployment. The mass production of Vera Rubin, he said, is expected to support the next phase of global AI factory expansion.

His remarks underscored a broader industry shift from generative AI toward what Nvidia calls “agentic AI” — systems that can act independently across data centers, personal computers, vehicles, factories, and robots.

Huang characterized this transition as a fundamental redesign of computing architecture, one that will reshape virtually every digital platform.

Taiwan at the epicenter

While the technological announcements were significant, another major theme centered on Taiwan’s role in the emerging AI economy.

Huang repeatedly described Taiwan as the “epicenter” of the AI revolution, emphasizing the island’s unparalleled semiconductor ecosystem and its importance to Nvidia’s global operations.

He announced plans for continued large-scale investment in Taiwan and highlighted the company’s deep reliance on local partners throughout the supply chain.

Huang stressed that supply networks must be both diversified and equipped with sufficient redundancy to withstand geopolitical uncertainties and operational disruptions.

In that context, he described Taiwan as an extraordinary strategic partner for the United States, pointing to the substantial investments Taiwanese companies are making in the American manufacturing ecosystem. Taiwanese industry leaders including TSMC, ASE Technology, Wistron, and Foxconn have committed significant resources to expanding their US footprints, a trend Huang said reflects a broader effort to build a more diversified and resilient global supply chain.

At the same time, Huang stressed that Taiwan remains unparalleled in advanced technology manufacturing. Calling the island the "epicenter" of the industry ecosystem, he said it is where much of the world's innovation-to-production pipeline begins.

A similar theme emerged in another Computex keynote delivered by Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon, who opened his presentation by thanking Taiwanese ecosystem partners, including TSMC, for their role in advancing the current technological development.

Amon predicted that global token demand could increase fortyfold between 2026 and 2030, arguing that tokens are rapidly becoming the new currency of AI

Beyond traditional computing platforms, he highlighted automobiles, robotics, and industrial systems as major future growth areas for AI, particularly because such applications demand extremely low latency, high reliability, and strong security.

Amon concluded that the era of agentic AI has already arrived, fundamentally reshaping computing architectures and creating unprecedented demand for new classes of devices and processing capabilities. The transition now underway, he said, could represent the largest technology upgrade cycle the industry has ever experienced.