The hottest new celebrity is…a chip CEO

As Nvidia’s market cap hit $3 trillion, CEO Jensen Huang received a hero’s welcome during a visit to his birth land of Taiwan to attend an industry event. His personal star—and his company’s—has never flown higher.

Over the past week, the Taiwanese public and media clung to the leather-jacket-clad Huang’s every move in Taipei, where the 61-year-old is viewed as a homegrown icon.

“He is Taiwan’s pride,” said Ollie Lin, a magazine editor who watched Huang deliver a 90-minute speech at a college auditorium as heavy rains poured down outside. She had hoisted a sign that said “Taiwan hearts you” next to Huang’s photo. “Seeing him under the spotlight, yet so connected to Taiwan,” she said, “just brings him closer to us.”

Taiwan, where most of the world’s advanced semiconductors are made, has played a crucial role in Nvidia’s success. TSMC—short for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.—makes many of the chips that Nvidia designs at its fabrication plants on this island roughly the same geographic size as Maryland. Many Nvidia customers are also based in Taiwan, which has a population of roughly 23 million people.

Some said Huang may be flying too close to the sun, as he attracted online backlash for some of his behavior. In one interview with a local-media outlet, Huang called Taiwan a “country” that sits at the center of the world’s electronics industry. China’s Communist government claims the democratically self-ruled island as its own despite never ruling here. The Nvidia CEO’s comment prompted scathing remarks from social-media users across China, where access to Nvidia chips has been increasingly limited due to U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia declined to comment on Huang’s description of Taiwan.

Born Jen-Hsun Huang in Taipei in 1963, Huang moved to Thailand at the age of five. He stayed there for roughly four years before heading…