Coatue's Laffont says geopolitics is a threat to Nvidia, chip industry

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge fund Coatue Management's founder Philippe Laffont said on Tuesday that he is concerned about how geopolitical conflicts could affect the chip industry and the development of artificial intelligence, including Nvidia.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Invest conference, Laffont said if China invaded Taiwan, it would disrupt chip production, as most of the industry capital expenditure is concentrated in the island with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has Nvidia as one of its major clients.

"That's very risky because the highest market capitalization is dependent on production in Taiwan," he said about the risks posed to AI chipmaker Nvidia.

Last week, Nvidia became the most valuable company at $3.3 trillion. On Tuesday, it was the third biggest company by market capitalization, behind Microsoft and Apple.

Coatue ended March with roughly $1.3 billion invested in Nvidia, according to a securities filing. Laffont did not mention his current position.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in New York; Editing by Josie Kao)