Twelve foreign enterprises signed investment letters of intent (LOI) worth an estimated NT$46 billion (US$1.43 billion) at an event held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) at Semicon Taiwan exhibition yesterday.
Of the 12 firms, four are Japanese, three are American, three are European and two are from other regions, the ministry said.
The businesses are engaged in various fields including IC design, IC manufacturing, semiconductor equipment and materials, biotech, real estate and logistics, the ministry said.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Economic Affairs
The Taiwan Business Alliance Conference, an annual event held by the ministry to attract foreign investors, was held alongside the Semicon Taiwan trade show for the first time this year in the expectation that more foreign enterprises could see the advantage of investing in Taiwan in the boom of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the ministry said.
Semiconductor-related companies include the US-based Applied Materials Inc and Micron Technology Inc; NXP Semiconductors NV of the Netherlands; Germany's Carl Zeiss Co; as well as Taiwan Fujibo Precision Materials Co (台灣富士紡精密材料), Taiwan Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo Co (台灣田中貴金屬) and Central Glass Co from Japan.
Addressing the event, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said that despite being about the size of the Netherlands and Maryland in the US, Taiwan has "the world's most comprehensive industrial cluster in the semiconductor sector."
Photo: Liao Chia-ning, Taipei Times
This showed Taiwan's "critical position in the supply chain," Kuo added.
Quoting Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), Kuo said Taiwan is at the center of the AI revolution.
He added that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc's decision to set up research centers in Taiwan represented "a win-win strategy."
A ministry official told the media on the sidelines of the event that the ministry expects investment from the 12 companies to total around NT$46 billion over the next three years.
Asked whether the companies signing LOIs have always invested the pledged amount, the official said this is the case 80 to 90 percent of the time.
Other companies signing the LOI included JRE Business Development Taiwan Inc (台灣捷爾東事業開發) and Switzerland's SHL Medical.
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