For years the island democracy depended on its outsized semiconductor industry to protect it from China’s advances. But huge success comes at a price.
Already a subscriber?Hsinchu is Taiwan’s economic engine room. It’s a humid and industrial city nestled beneath the Shibajianshan mountains, an hour south of the capital Taipei.
But demand for chips exploded last year as artificial intelligence broke into the mainstream. AI is trained on billions of terabytes of data. This requires enormous amounts of computational power. The “silicon shield”, as it has become known, was built. Hsinchu, once a sleepy second-tier city, accelerated to become the richest per-capita in Taiwan, contributing $US127 billion a year in revenue to Taiwan’s economy. It now boasts the highest education and birthrates but is technically still the youngest precinct.
. Fighter jets staged mock strikes in a “punishment” after Taiwan’s new pro-independence president, Lai Ching-te, took office.In his maiden speech, Ching-te noted the value of Taiwan’s “silicon shield”. He told millions of onlookers that Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was “indispensable” and that the country stands at the “centre of the AI revolution”.
Jimmy Goodrich, senior associate at the Wadhwani Centre for AI and Advanced Technologies in Washington, pointed out at the UBS Asian Investment Conference, that geopolitics is now firmly driving trade routes. There is reason for optimism for Taiwan. The semiconductor supply chain is so complex, and the manufacturing techniques so specialised, it’s not simply a matter of plonking a new factory in Texas.
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