Managing Partner @ Hyphen Capital | Co-founder and President @ Expo | Co-founder of Stand With Asian Americans | Producer of Emmy-winning 38 at the Garden | Smithsonian APAC Board
Three Taiwanese American immigrants from southern Taiwan are leading the AI infra revolution. One in three unicorns have an Asian founder. 62% of unicorns had a first or second generation immigrant founder. And two of them are from the same small city on this tiny island country. In 1958, Charles Liang was born in the small town of Chiayi, Taiwan. 70 km south in 1963, the year Jensen Huang was born in Tainan, the population was 127,000. Six years later, Lisa Su was also born in Tainan. This small area in southern Taiwan gave birth to three of the most powerful people in technology today who are at the global forefront of artificial intelligence. If you've ever visited Tainan, you would realize how highly implausible this is. Liang is the founder and CEO of Supermicro ($50 billion). Su is the CEO of AMD ($278 billion). And Huang is the founder and CEO of the one of the top three most valuable companies in the world NVIDIA ($3.1 trillion). NVIDIA stock is up 3,000% in the past 5 years, only to be topped by Supermicro's growth of 4,374%. All three are now billionaires from the AI boom and were born in an area better known for its beef soup than its semiconductors. Taiwan has a population of 23.5 million and has always punched way above it's weight class. I just visited Taiwan and I couldn't be more proud of what my three fellow Taiwanese Americans have achieved. That's why I'm excited to invest in the next Jensens, Lisas and Charles' through Hyphen Capital. 🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼
I invest in all 4: NVDA TSM AMD SMCI. Always bet on Taiwanese when it comes to AI! Oh and I was born in Tainan too :-)
So proud to be Taiwanese American 🇹🇼
Lisa and Jensen are cousins which is another fun fact to share. Tainan is rooted in history and culture. I hope more people have a chance to visit. Many also might not know but Taiwan suppliers were also critical to the start of Telsa. And, Taiwan is the birthplace to bubble milk tea.
Thanks for featuring Taiwan. Taiwan is booming now because of AI infra strong demand (picks and shovels for all AI gold miners)! A lot of investment opp!!
You *literally* can't spell TAIWAN without AI. That should be Taiwan's tagline going forward for anything AI related! You're welcome Taiwan! :)
When I went to Taiwan for the first time at 30, I felt at home for the first time in my Asianness. When I went to Tainan for the first time at 38, I felt at home for the first time in my queerness. Both were fundamentally expansive experiences in demonstrating to me how I *can* feel and how I *deserve* to feel in my environment and self. And returning to bondage in a land that runs on hate becomes more and more challenging, in part because it makes less and less sense.
Here in TW right now, its an incredible place Proud to be Taiwanese American 🇹🇼
The night markets in Taipei are so much fun. Delicious food. Taiwan has a strong food culture in addition to intellectual prowess. I wonder if they are related.
To be fair, the two born in Tainan are first cousins once removed, so it's not totally random that they're from the same town. But it sounds like they didn't really know each other growing / help each other get ahead, so still remarkable. Tainan is underrated outside of Taiwan! Amazing place to visit!