Taiwan puts AI at SA’s – and the world’s – feet

Taiwan may have endured a long period of political isolation due to the one-China policy, but the island is making its existence felt as a giant of digital technology worldwide.

The country is willing to share its technological know-how, infrastructure and innovations with the rest of the world, including South Africa, Oliver Liao, representative of the Taipei liaison office in Pretoria, said.

Taiwan, which placed economic diplomacy as one of its foreign policy pillars, believed SA’s 2030 National Development Plan provides fertile opportunity for technological cooperation, he said.

Looking at SA opportunity

Liao noted the SA government’s desire to catch up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution to achieve industrial upgrading, with AI technology playing a critical role in this transformation.

“Without Taiwan’s provision of AI chips, such industrial advancements would be difficult to realise,” he said.

“Taiwan is willing to cooperate with South Africa, empowering local talents needed for the industrial and information sectors, and promoting bilateral investment and economic and trade exchanges to help SA meet its industrial upgrade goals by 2030.”

As a leading exporter of semiconductors, Taiwan supplies 95% of the world’s needs, with developed economies forming the bulk of its market. The country had a wide range of technology companies and many more firms involved in technologies that play pivotal roles in the global supply chain.

Jensen Huang, founder, president and CEO of AI giant Nvidia, said during his visit to Taiwan the word “Taiwan” contains the letters “AI” in its English spelling.

This further reinforces Taiwan’s leadership not only in the semiconductor industry, but also in the AI sector, where Taiwan plays a significant role, he said.

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Technology giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Intel, have recognised Taiwan as a crucial partner and promised to expand their investments in Taiwan in next few years.

The creator and supplier of semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), based at Hsinchu City outside the capital, Taipei, has a growing international footprint with facilities in Europe, the United States and Japan.

Interests to open more plants were received from Vietnam and India. Founded on 21 February, 1987, by Dr Morris Chang, a graduate of Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University-educated electrical engineer and semiconductor entrepreneur, the company manufactures various chips targeting high-end markets such as cellphones and automotive and digital consumer electronics.

Large role in Taiwan’s GDP

According to the 2023 report, TSMC contributed 7.3% to Taiwan’s gross domestic product and occupied a whopping 53% portion of capital expenditure of all listed manufacturing companies.

Its annual capital expenditure exceeded NT$767 billion (about R418 billion) over the past five years. TSMC, which embraced green manufacturing, served 528 customers and manufactured 11 895 products in 2023, with a workforce of over 76 000.

It manufacturing activities also provided 548 000 jobs created in related industries. TSMC’s manufacturing reached a turning point in 2000 when the company acquired water fabrication, which was later named Fab-8, which enabled it to meet the customer demand.

It is now regarded as the world’s 8-inch water production base for power manufacturing integrated circuits.

In 2023, its consolidated venue amounted to approximately NT2.161 billion and a net profit after tax of NT$838.5 billion.

The firm accounted for the 27.47% of the Taiwan stock market value and had the largest investment target for domestic investors at NT$4,29 trillion as of end December last year in market value.

TSMC is the only semiconductor company to be selected as a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for 23 consecutive years and is listed on the Taiwan and New York stock exchanges since 1994 and 1997 respectively.

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