Taiwanese business leaders remain broadly optimistic about economic prospects this year, but rising uncertainty over US trade policy, persistent talent shortages and uneven returns from artificial intelligence (AI) investment are reshaping corporate strategies, according to a CEO survey released yesterday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan.
The survey, which gathered responses from 216 local corporate leaders, found that 44 percent view tariffs as a “high-level threat,” underscoring Taiwan’s vulnerability to shifting global trade policies amid renewed pressure linked to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“US tariffs, geopolitics and technological disruption are reshaping competition and testing leadership, as returns from AI investment lag and talent shortages persist,” PwC Taiwan chairman and CEO Patrick Hsu (徐聖忠) said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
Taiwanese firms are responding more aggressively than global peers to geopolitical risks, as nearly 40 percent plan to increase investment in the US, up 12 percentage points from last year, driven mainly by semiconductor and electronics firms.
The US has emerged as the top investment destination globally, across the Asia-Pacific region and in Taiwan, the survey showed.
Despite external risks, confidence remains steady. PwC found that 50 percent of local CEOs expect global economic conditions to improve this year, unchanged from last year. Taiwan’s outlook appears comparatively strong, with 63 percent of respondents expressing confidence in the domestic economy, supported by sustained demand related to AI applications.
Talent shortages remain the most pressing concern. More than half of respondents, or 52 percent, cited access to critical skills as the biggest threat over the next year — more than double the global average of 22 percent.
While AI adoption has accelerated, financial returns remain mixed. Over the past year, AI contributed to revenue growth for 27 percent of Taiwanese firms, while 22 percent reported cost reductions. However, 54 percent said they have yet to see meaningful financial returns from AI investments.
At the same time, industry boundaries continue to blur. Over the past five years, 47 percent of Taiwanese companies expanded into new business domains, a trend expected to speed up through mergers and acquisitions.
Innovation also emerged as a key challenge, with 55 percent of local respondents citing it as a major concern. Yet only 42 percent said innovation is embedded at the core of their corporate strategy.
PwC Taiwan said that companies with stronger innovation capabilities have delivered significantly better results, with half expanding market share over the past five years, compared with just 30 percent among less innovative peers.
“Innovation is not only a growth engine, but also a defensive moat for sustaining market leadership,” PwC Taiwan said.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
RSS