Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) has chosen to locate its new research-and-development (R&D) centers in Tainan and Kaohsiung, as part of the US chip company's NT$8.64 billion (US$270.5 million) project to advance its development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and silicon photonics, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
AMD’s latest investment would help to develop Taiwan into an “AI silicon island,” the ministry said in a statement after Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) met AMD representatives led by David Wang (王啟尚), senior vice president of AMD’s graphics processing unit technologies and engineering, in Taipei yesterday.
AMD did not comment on why it chose two sites rather than one. Tainan is the birthplace of AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) and is a major manufacturing hub of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) 3-nanometer chips for AI devices. In Kaohsiung, TSMC is building a new fab to produce next-generation 2-nanometer chips.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
AMD is the latest in a series of global semiconductor companies seeking to build their R&D centers in Taiwan under the ministry’s A+ global R&D and innovation partnership program. The US chip company last month was granted a subsidy of NT$3.31 billion, about 38 percent of the company’s investment over three years.
AMD’s decision came as Taiwan has formed an extensive supply chain to provide components for the world’s AI devices, from AI chips made by TSMC to AI servers assembled by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Wiwynn Corp (緯穎).
AI chip giant Nvidia Corp has set up its first AI R&D center in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) and is scouting sites for a second, likely in Kaohsiung.
Semiconductor equipment makers ASML Holding NV, Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc previously also received grants to set up local R&D sites through the same program, the ministry said.
Kaohsiung has been working diligently to expand the local talent pool in collaboration with the nation’s prestigious schools. At the beginning of this year, National Tsing Hua University signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kaohsiung City Government to establish a branch in the city, following a similar agreement with National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University.
Based on details previously disclosed by the ministry, about 33 Taiwanese companies would take part in AMD’s R&D program, which would help to train more than 10,000 AI professionals each year for three years.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS