Microsoft Corp yesterday said it plans to expand its data center deployment and artificial intelligence (AI) services in Taiwan to match fast-growing demand from local vertical industries as AI applications gain traction.
The Redmond, Washington-based cloud service provider enabled its first phase of its Azure data center in Taiwan last year, allowing early adotping customers to access its cloud and AI services, four years after it announced a mega data center investment in 2020.
The Taiwan Azure “data center region” would comprise three to four data centers, Microsoft said.
Photo: CNA
“After we enabled the first of our one-plus-one data center projects last year, we hope to introduce three-to-plue-one data center projects very soon,” Microsoft Taiwan Corp general manager Sean Pien (卞志祥) told reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing yesterday.
The investment helped Microsoft fully deliver Microsoft’s cloud and AI services to local enterprises by overcoming regulatory barriers barring data collected locally from being stored overseas, Pien said.
Microsoft’s data center customers are from almost all sectors, including government agencies, medical institutions, financial service providers and telecoms, which are usually the last adopters of cloud-based AI services due to data security and privacy concerns, he said.
Early adopters, such as technology companies, embrace high-performance computing and real-time inference applications for on-site devices, he said.
More than 200 functions or applications are available for Microsoft’s customers in Taiwan, he said.
The number of functions matches the offerings from Microsoft’s data centers elsewhere in the world, he said.
Microsoft said it is not worried about the connectivity resilience of its data centers, as Taiwan operates more submarine cables than most people imagine, Pien said in response to a question about the risk of connection disruptions after several subsea cables connecting Taiwan to other regions were sabotaged in the past few months, with some cut by Chinese vessels.
Microsoft plans to utilize medium Earth orbit and low Earth orbit satellites to enhance connectivity resilience, he said.
Although the services of SpaceX’s Starlink are not available in Taiwan, Pien said there are other options.
Meanwhile, Nvidia Corp’s investment in OpenAI to build a 10 gigawatt AI data center sent a positive message, Pien said.
The deal indicates that AI applications have gained traction as the world’s major technology firms start investing in AI infrastructure again, he said.
Microsoft’s partnerships with OpenAI are strong, he added.
Microsoft remains the major AI computing power supporter for OpenAI and the first company offering AI applications based on the latest language models developed by OpenAI, Pien said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
RSS