Alphabet's Google today opened in Taiwan its biggest artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure hardware engineering center outside of the US, in what Taiwan's president said was a show of confidence in Taiwan as a trustworthy technology partner.
Taiwan is home to the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC whose chips are widely used by companies like Nvidia that are driving the global AI boom.
The technology developed and tested in Taipei is deployed in Google data centers around the world, which in turn power Google devices that billions of people rely on everyday," said Aamer Mahmood, Google Cloud's vice president of platforms infrastructure engineering.
Photo: Taipei Times
"This is not just an investment in an office, it's an investment in an ecosystem, a testament to Taiwan's place as an important center for global AI innovation."
Taiwan President William Lai (賴清德) told the opening ceremony that Google was showing its commitment to long-term investment in Taiwan.
"This also allows the world to see that Taiwan is not only a vital part of the global technological supply chain, but also a key hub for building secure and trustworthy AI," he said.
Taiwan's government has repeatedly warned of the risks involved in using Chinese-developed AI systems like DeepSeek.
China's government has dismissed such concerns.
The new Google engineering center also reflects the deep partnership between the US and Taiwan, said Raymond Greene, the de facto US ambassador in Taipei.
"Building on this foundation of innovation, we are entering a new era of opportunity, a new golden age in US-Taiwan economic relations," he said.
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