Amazon Web Services (AWS) is planning to invest billions of dollars over the next 15 years to build data centers in Taiwan and create an infrastructure region in the country by early next year, the Amazon.com Inc cloud computing subsidiary said yesterday.
The new “AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region” aims to help customers and AWS partners in Taiwan store their content securely and run cloud-enabled workloads with lower latency from data centers in Taiwan, the company said.
The project reflects AWS’ long-term commitment to Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region amid growing demand for cloud services, it said.
Photo: Reuters
The move comes as Taiwan has become a major data center market for global cloud service providers amid rising demand for digital transformation, artificial intelligence and clean energy. In 2013, Google opened a data center in Changhua County, while Microsoft Corp is building a data center in Taoyuan that is scheduled to open later this year.
AWS provides customers computing, data storage, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence services from its data centers around the world.
In Taiwan, companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Acer Inc (宏碁), Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技) and Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子), are using AWS’ services to deal with workloads.
AWS said it has steadily increased its investment in Taiwan since 2014, with the launch of “Local Zones” in Taipei in 2022, its most recent major infrastructure deployment in the country.
Compared with Local Zones, the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region’s data center would be larger in scale, and can provide customers with low latency, high-speed transmission services because it stores data domestically, it said.
The new AWS region in Taiwan would consist of three “Availability Zones” at launch, the company said.
Currently, AWS operates 105 Availability Zones in 33 geographic regions globally, it said.
Availability Zones feature infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations, with the zones far enough from each other to support customers’ business continuity, while being close enough to provide low-latency access for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones, AWS said.
Each zone has independent power, cooling and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low-latency networks, it said, adding that customers could design their applications to run in multiple zones to achieve a greater fault tolerance.
“With today’s announcement, AWS has plans to launch 21 more Availability Zones and seven more AWS Regions in Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud,” it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
UNCERTAINTY: A final ruling against the president’s tariffs would upend his trade deals and force the government to content with billions of dollars in refunds The legal fight over US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs is deepening after a federal appeals court ruled the levies were issued illegally under an emergency law, extending the chaos in global trade. A 7-4 decision by a panel of judges on Friday was a major setback for Trump, even as it gives both sides something to boast about. The majority upheld a May ruling by the Court of International Trade that the tariffs were illegal. However, the judges left the levies intact while the case proceeds, as Trump had requested, and suggested that any injunction could potentially be narrowed to apply
RSS