Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced on May 27 that the company aims to invest as much as $150 billion annually in Taiwan, marking a dramatic escalation from the $10-15 billion spent there just a few years ago before the AI chip boom. The announcement came during a launch party in Taipei for Nvidia's proposed Taiwan headquarters, which is expected to begin construction this year and be operational by 2030. This investment represents Nvidia's strategic bet on Taiwan's growing importance in the global AI supply chain, with the company already spending approximately $100 billion annually in the island nation. The decision underscores Nvidia's growing dependence on Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem as major cloud providers rush to construct AI infrastructure, with the company's new headquarters putting it closer to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker.
Intel (INTC) stock price fell nearly 6% on Friday following Nvidia's announcement of the RTX Spark superchip at Computex in Taipei on June 1. The decline ended one of 2026's hottest rallies, with the stock having climbed from a late-March low near $40 to a high of almost $133 on May 11, representing a gain of more than 230%. As reported by BeInCrypto, Friday's candle sank on roughly 191.68 million shares, well above average, with selling volume rising steadily into the drop. The broader semiconductor sector was severely impacted, with Intel shares sliding 3.7%, AMD dropping 5.5%, and Qualcomm tumbling 8.9%, while Nvidia itself gained 4% and memory maker Micron added 5.5%. PC manufacturers were the biggest winners, with HP and Dell each climbing more than 7%, and Lenovo rising over 5% in Hong Kong trading.
The trigger for the decline came at Computex when NVIDIA unveiled its RTX Spark superchip, an Arm-based processor with a Blackwell GPU for Windows laptops and desktops, launching this fall across major manufacturers including Dell, HP, Microsoft, Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI. As reported by BeInCrypto, traders could be reading this as a direct strike on Intel's PC processor dominance, with INTC gapping lower. Intel detailed its own Crescent Island AI GPU the same day, yet with sampling months away, it failed to offset the competitive blow. The RTX Spark represents an aggressive push into the Windows PC processor market that Intel and AMD have dominated for decades, marking what could be the most significant shake-up in personal computing since Apple ditched Intel for its own silicon. The platform marries a Blackwell-based RTX GPU with a 20-core Grace CPU, developed in collaboration with MediaTek, with Nvidia claiming 1 petaflop of AI compute and up to 128 GB of unified memory. The chip uses Arm architecture instead of x86, the same family of designs that powers virtually every smartphone and Apple's Mac lineup, marking a fundamental shift from the processor design that has dominated PCs since the late 1970s.
Despite the market pressure, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan delivered his Computex keynote on June 2 at 1:30 p.m. local time, outlining the company's counter-strategy centered on autonomous AI systems. The first commercial chip built on Intel's 18A manufacturing process is the Xeon 6+ processor, codenamed Clearwater Forest, which Intel frames as the central controller for autonomous AI systems, handling data flow and task allocation. Alongside the CPU, Intel unveiled Crescent Island, a 350-watt GPU built on the Xe3P architecture that strips out all graphics and 3D functions, designed purely for running autonomous AI agents. To address soaring high-bandwidth memory costs, Intel uses LPDDR5X memory with dense memory channels fed by a broader supplier base to keep capacity high and costs manageable. Intel is promoting a "Hybrid Agentic AI" approach that spans AI PCs, edge devices, and data centers, enabled by its new SuperClaw solution and an updated Ethernet controller aimed at reducing latency and power consumption in chip-to-chip communication.
Intel entered the week on a cautiously optimistic note, with first-quarter 2026 revenue coming in at $13.6 billion, up 7% year over year. Adjusted net income surged 156% to $1.5 billion, though on a GAAP basis the company still posted a net loss of $3.7 billion. The stock, which had recovered dramatically from a 52-week low of €16.69, was hovering around €95.70 after the Nvidia sell-off, with the relative strength index dropping to about 19, deep in oversold territory. By the time of Tan's keynote, Intel shares had fallen further to €92.36, down 6% from the prior Friday, though year-to-date the stock still shows a gain of 175%. The first real test of Nvidia's PC push will come this autumn when RTX Spark devices reach store shelves, with demand for AI PCs so far being uneven - HP has reported positive effects while Dell earlier conceded that demand fell short of expectations.
The competitive landscape is being reshaped by Nvidia's strategic partnerships and collaborations. Microsoft's decision to work closely with Nvidia demonstrates its serious commitment to Arm-based PCs as a crucial part of its platform strategy going forward, as reported by multiple sources. This collaboration addresses important factors such as compatibility for Windows software on Arm architecture and optimization of manufacturing processes for mobile-grade processors. Nvidia's strategic expansion extends beyond Taiwan, with the company also maintaining tight ties with Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision Industry, one of the main firms helping construct AI servers and racks utilized in huge data centers. Foxconn announced a $1.4 billion Taiwan supercomputing facility it is building with Nvidia, which will be ready in the first half of 2026, with the company stating it has capacity to produce 1,000 AI racks weekly and anticipating that capacity to grow. The immediate declines in Intel's and AMD's stock prices following Nvidia's announcement suggest a strong market belief that Nvidia's entry poses a structural threat rather than just a marketing tactic, with attention especially warranted regarding these strategic partnerships.
