| 英文摘要 |
After U.S. President Joe Biden came to power in 2021, he shifted the focus of the strategic confrontation between the United States and China from a trade war to a technology war, thus making Taiwan and South Korea the focus of the world's attention, as both economies are feathered with high-tech industries. Subsequently, the Biden administration successively launched incentive measures such as the Chip Alliance, the Chips and Science Act aimed at attracting foreign investment and creating jobs, and the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, Taiwan and South Korea have adopted a consistent strategy of reducing their reliance on China and strengthening technological cooperation with the United States. At the same time, they have also invested heavily in the US in response. According to statistics, Taiwan approved a total of 90 investment cases in the US in 2023, with an amount of US$9.69 billion, accounting for 41.10% of Taiwan’s total approved foreign investment amount, ranking first regardless of the number of cases or amount. While the U.S. became Taiwan's top choice for outbound investment, South Korean companies committed a total of US$21.5 billion to U.S. investment projects, surpassing Taiwan, which was ranked first the year before, and becoming the largest foreign investor in the U.S.
Although both Taiwan and South Korea have adopted the pro-U.S. approach and have invested heavily in high-tech industries in the US, Taiwan and South Korean companies have different strategies for investing in high-tech industries in the US. First, in terms of the characteristics of investment behavior, Taiwan businessmen are relatively cautious in investing in the U.S., while South Korean counterparts are bold and aggressive. During Biden’s four-year term (2021-2025), Taiwanese business’investment in the US increased in a big way, exemplified by the US$65 billion investment in Arizona of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC,
台積電) standing out, while the scale of other investments by Taiwan companies is relatively inconspicuous. For example, Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海), better known as Foxconn, is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer with half a century’s worth of experience building everything from iPhones to gaming consoles and most recently EVs, semiconductors and AI tech. Foxconn bought struggling EV start-up Lordstown Motors’Ohio manufacturing facility in May 2022 for US$230 million. That Ohio plant then partnering with US-based startup Monarch Tractors for manufacturing unmanned electric tractors for agricultural use, and for producing electric pickup trucks. Moreover, Delta Electronics (台達電) is striving to become ''Made in the US'' with a total investment of more than US$209 million, mainly focusing on Research and Development, manufacturing and business expansion in Texas to meet business needs such as future development of data centers, telecommunications application information and communications, and electric vehicle charging solutions.
Conversely, South Korean investments in the U.S. totaled US$114 billion over the past four years under the Biden administration. According to fDi Markets, a subsidiary of the Financial Times, more than one-third of South Korea's announcements about setting up factories in America in 2023 were investments in the automotive or electronics industries. Samsung, the world's leading memory chip maker and the world's second-largest wafer foundry,spentUS$17 billion in2021 to build a wafer foundry in Taylor, Texas, and later increased its investment to more than US$37 billion, making it the largest investment in Samsung Electronics' history in the US. It was followed by Hyundai Motor and LG New Energy’s US$4.3 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Georgia, mainly because the IRA provides a US$7,500 tax credit for EVs assembled in North America. In addition, SK Hynix invested nearlyUS$4 billion to build an artificial intelligence memory packaging production facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. In the same year, Taiwan companies such as TSMC and others have dispersed their investments to Japan and Southeast Asia, resulting in Taiwan's investment in the US falling sharply after 2022, with South Korea jumping to the top of the list.
Another difference in the investment strategies of companies between the two economies is that Taiwan companies' investments in the US are mostly at the request of U.S. customers, while Korean companies invest in the U.S. relatively more in line with the Biden administration's policy and strategy toward China and maintain the traditional practice of setting up sole proprietorships in key industries, while joint ventures with the U.S. counterparts are mostly aimed at obtaining U.S. government grants or replacing the U.S. market that China has left behind. The Biden administration's efforts to exclude China from the supply chain and to provide generous subsidies for advanced manufacturing are driving forces that attract capital from South Korea.
Financial Times reports that tensions in US-China relations are also causing South Korean businessmen to turn to the US for expansion. Data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show that more than half of South Korea's foreign investment went to the US in 2023, up from 18 percent in 2019, to US$21.5 billion, making it the largest foreign investor in America. This is the first time in at least a decade that South Korea has topped the list of committed investments in the U.S. China was the largest investor in the U.S. in 2014, but fell to eighth place in 2023.Meanwhile, only 1% of South Korea's foreign investment went to China.
In fact, South Korean battery companies already dominate the US market. By 2023,thirty-one US electric vehicle(EV) models used Korean-made batteries, accounting for approximately 80% of all subsidized EV models. Batteries from three South Korean companies—LG Energy Solution (LGES), SKOn, and Samsung SDI—power 80% of subsidized EVs in the US. Furthermore, the Biden administration approved a US$9.63 billion loan to SKOn and Ford's joint venture battery plant, which will be used to complete three factories by 2025, two of which are located in Kentucky in the Midwestern United States and one in Tennessee in the Southern US. In March 2023,LGES invested $5.6 billion in Arizona in the southwestern US to qualify for federal IRA incentives. General Motors(GM) and Samsung SDI planed to invest US$3 billion in building a battery factory in Indiana, in the Midwestern United States.
LG EnergySolution announced it will invest US$4.5 billion by 2025 in Spring Hill, Tennessee, to build a second battery plant in partnership with General Motors (GM). LGES has already invested $2.3billion in the two companies' first joint battery plant in Ohio. Last December, the Biden administration signed a final agreement to provide US$458 million in subsidies to Hynix's Indiana semiconductor plant and US$4.745 billion to Samsung's Texas semiconductor plant. In addition, Hanwha is investing US$2.5 billion to build the largest solar center in the US in Dalton, Georgia, by 2024, which will produce solar chips, batteries, modules, and cast aluminum ingots. This investment will be the largest ever made by a company in the US solar industry.
Furthermore, both Taiwanese and Korean companies share a ''US plus one'' focus, but for Taiwanese companies, that ''plus one'' is Mexico, while for Korean companies, it is Canada. Korean companies invest in Canada not only because they can access the US market through the USMCA, but more importantly, Canada possesses abundant reserves of nickel, tungsten, and cobalt, essential for battery production (ranking second, fifth, and eighth in the world, respectively).20
In March 2022, LG Energy Solution and Stellantis N.V. announced an investment of C$5 billion (US$4.1 billion dollars) in Canada to establish an EV lithium battery plant in Windsor, Ontario. 21 In August 2023, EcoPro BM, SK On, and Ford announced an investment of US$886 million to build a cathode plant in Canada. This is EcoPro BM's first battery material plant in North America, with an annual cathode production capacity of 45,000 tons. South Korea’s EcoPro BM has been seeking to reduce its heavy reliance on Chinese battery minerals and materials in response to legal requirements. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) encourages companies to produce batteries in the United States, aiming to help the U.S. automotive industry reduce its dependence on Chinese batteries.
As for Taiwanese companies, Foxconn is a representative example. It is both a major supplier of Nvidia(輝達) AI servers and the largest assembler of Apple iPhones. In 2024, its subsidiary Ingrasys Technology (鴻佰科技) invested US$10 million in its Mexico plant to build the world's largest GB200 AI server factory and expand Blackwell testing and production. Other major Taiwanese companies, including iPhone assembler Pegatron (和碩電腦), MacBook manufacturer Quanta Computer (廣達電腦), iPad supplier Compal Electronics (仁寶電腦), and notebook computer manufacturers for HP and Dell, Inventec (英業達), are all expanding their production capacity in Mexico in 2024.
Pegatron Corp., one of Taiwan's leading contract electronics makers, currently has overseas locations in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico, with a new Mexican plant expected to begin its commercial production of artificial intelligence servers in the third quarter of this year. Inventec and Wistron (緯創) are aggressively entering the automotive market, having both partnered with Dutch semiconductor giant NXP Semiconductors (NXPI,恩智浦). Other Taiwanese companies in Mexico include Chenbro Micom (勤誠興業), which manufactures computer cases, Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC,啟碁), which operates a thermal module plant, and Wistron and Wiwynn(緯穎), which operate assembly plants. Wiwynn Technology provides products and system solutions for hyperscale data centers and cloud infrastructure. Wistron and Wiwynn were the top-ranked companies in Taiwan in terms of combined server shipments in 2020.
In March 2023, Tesla’s announcement to invest US$5 billion to build a gigafactory in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico provided new impetus for Taiwanese suppliers to invest heavily in Mexico. Take Hota Industrial Mfg. Co. as an example. Since Tesla is Hota's second-largest customer, Hota announced in 2023 that it would build its first U.S. factory in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, near the Mexican border. The company has a warehouse in Escobedo, Mexico.
The Trump Administration
Although both Taiwanese and Korean investors primarily target the United States, Taiwanese firms concentrate on semiconductor-related industries, while Korean investments are more diversified, predominantly in electric vehicle (EV) sectors but also spanning semiconductors, green energy, and shipbuilding. Taiwanese companies benefit from their involvement in Nvidia of Jensen Huang(黃仁勳) as well as Elon Musk's SpaceX project and his Mexico new EV plant, whereas South Korea anticipates significant gains in the shipbuilding industry.
Since Donald Trump took office as US president, the biggest challenge for Taiwan and South Korea has been his strong demand for high-tech manufacturing to return to the US, as well as the deterioration of relations with neighboring Canada and Mexico in addition of tariff blackmail. The previous Biden administration attempted to boost U.S. manufacturing capabilities with the“carrot”of massive subsidies, while the Trump administration wielded the“stick”of tariffs. The global semiconductor supply chain currently operates under a division of labor where the United States handles high-value-added design, while East Asian regions such as South Korea and Taiwan are responsible for manufacturing and production. Semiconductors rank as South Korea's second-largest export to the US, only next to vehicles, with cars and motor vehicle parts accounting for a significant portion of trade. Given that South Korea’s auto sector is already laser-focused on the U.S. market and has expanded production bases in the U.S. under the Biden administration. So, semiconductor matters. Last year, the U.S. accounted for 7.5% (US$10.7 billion) of all semiconductors produced in South Korea. While this share is not the highest, it still places the U.S. fifth behind China (32.8%), Hong Kong (18.4%), Taiwan (15.2%), and Vietnam (12.7%).
Conclusion
To date, no agreement has been reached on tariffs of the USMCA yet, rendering Taiwan and South Korea's so-called“US Plus One”investment strategy ineffective. In this situation, South Korea stands to benefit, while Taiwan is at a relative disadvantage. There are three main reasons for this. First, South Korea's economy, which is dominated by conglomerates, has a relative advantage over Taiwan's economy, which is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises(SME).South Korea's conglomerates, with their substantial financial resources, have been able to participate in the U.S.-South Korea tariff negotiations and respond positively to Trump's investment demands starting at tens of billions of dollars, thereby helping South Korea mitigate the tariff crisis. In contrast, Taiwanese investments, which are primarily composed of SME, are relatively small in scale and are unlikely to attract Trump's favor.
Taiwan ranked as the 7th-largest goods trading partner of the U.S.in 2024,with total trade reaching US$158.6 billion. Whereas South Korea was the eighth-largest contributor to the U.S. trade deficit. The U.S. ran a US$66 billion trade deficit with South Korea in that year. Taiwan and South Korea have thus become the primary targets of Trump's tariff war. Taiwan's primary exports to the US are heavily dominated by integrated circuits (ICs), automatic data processing equipment and components, and other information and communication technology (ICT) devices, driven by high-end tech products and increasing demand for AI infrastructure. In 2024, Taiwan exported machinery and electrical equipment with a total value of about US$88 billion to the the US.
South Korea's primary exports to the US are automobiles, semiconductors, and machinery, which together account for 70% of total exports, with automobiles being a key component. Tariff competition from Japan would directly threaten the North American market share of Korean brands like Hyundai and Kia. To avoid being at a disadvantage against Japanese automakers in the North American market, South Korea was striving to match Japan's 15% tariffs to maintain its market share and competitiveness in the US. US President Trump announced that the US and South Korea had reached a ''comprehensive and complete'' trade agreement. The agreement calls for South Korea to provide US$350 billion in investment to the US, to be used for various investment projects selected by Trump. In addition, South Korea has pledged to purchase an additional $100 billion in US energy products, including liquefied natural gas (LNG). Trump said that in exchange for the United States imposing a 15% tariff on South Korea, South Korea will fully open its market to allow US cars, trucks, agricultural products and other goods to be imported at zero tariffs.
Against this background, Hyundai Motor plans to expand the annual production capacity of its electric vehicle plant in Georgia, from the current 300,000 units to 500,000 units. To impress President-elect Trump, the Hyundai Group even donated $1 million to his inauguration ceremony. According to data from South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the nation's automotive industry achieved exports totaling $70.8 billion last year. North America accounted for $40 billion of this figure, exceeding half of the total export value. Hyundai Motor Group plays a pivotal role in sectors including mobility, construction, and emerging technologies, having invested $20.5 billion in the US. Hyundai Motor Group has created and supported 150,000 direct jobs and 420,000 indirect jobs across various industries in the US.
With that South Korea reached the July trade deal with the Trump administration, Korean conglomerates played a critical role, so is the Trump-Lee Washington summit in August this year. Semiconductors, batteries, shipbuilding and autos are key sectors the Korean business delegation focuses on for closer ties with Washington. As Trump is asking Korea to specify $350 billion in investment to the US in detail, the heads of South Korea’s largest conglomerates were heading to the US to support a Seoul-Washington summit. Led by Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong (李在鎔), the Korean conglomerate delegation also includes SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (崔泰源), LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo (具光模), Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan (金東官) and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun (鄭義宣).
Secondly, South Korea's industrial advantages are diverse and more in line with US demands, giving it greater bargaining power with the Trump administration. Moreover, it has direct access to the core decision-making circle of the Trump administration, enabling it to obtain accurate intelligence and propose initiatives that align with Trump's interests. Ultimately, this could lead to a turnaround, overcoming the disadvantages of being a latecomer (Japan and the EU both reached tariff agreements with the US before South Korea).
On the contrary, the William Lai administration has been overly complacent and overconfident, still immersed in the logic of the Democratic Party's Biden era, lacking a proper understanding of the Trump 2.0 agenda, and unable to penetrate its core decision- making team, resorting instead to engaging with peripheral figures such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, and Marco Rubio (merely an order executor, not a core decision-maker), unable to gain access to the core. Christian Whiton, a former senior advisor at the U.S. Department of State, in his article“How Taiwan Lost Trump,”offers criticism of Taiwan's foreign policy that is not entirely without merit. Some of his points are accurate, such as the fact that due to ideological similarities, Taiwan's foreign policy has been overly focused on the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is Trump's sworn enemy, so it is no wonder the Trump administration views Taiwan entirely negatively, accusing Taiwan of stealing U.S. chip industry. The U.S. cannot afford to rely on Taiwan for its chip supply, says Secretary Howard Lutnick, who warned in a CNBC interview that 99% of leading-edge semiconductors being made just“80 miles from China”poses a direct threat to national security. Instead, the U.S. is now moving aggressively to re-shore chip manufacturing through deals with South Korea, Japan—and major equity moves under the CHIPS Act. In contrast, South Korea has direct ties to Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President-elect Trump. In April of this year, Donald Trump Jr. visited South Korea at the invitation of Chung Yong-jin (鄭溶鎮), chairman of Shinsegae Group (新世界集團). Chairman Chung visited President-elect Trump in December 2024 and attended his inauguration ball on January 20, 2025.
Since Taiwan is no match for strongmen like Trump, we must pragmatically emulate South Korea and Volodymyr Zelenskyy's approach in his second meeting with Trump. Zelenskyy took the initiative to propose a deal that not only catered to the strongman's preferences but also leveraged his own advantages: purchasing approximately US$100 billion worth of American military equipment, half of which would be used for U.S.-Ukraine cooperation in producing drones urgently needed by the United States, as Ukraine has already become a drone production hub due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Similarly, South Korea was able to negotiate a floor tariff of 15% on par with Japan and the EU, not only due to its technological advantages and the support of its financially powerful conglomerates, but also by employing a negotiation strategy similar to that of Ukraine, catering to Trump's preferences. The proposal incorporated South Korea's advantageous industries, such as shipbuilding, semiconductors, and electric vehicle batteries, claiming that these could help Trump fulfill his pledge to“Make America Great Again.”The salient example is the shipbuilding sector. The U.S. government considering expanding its numerically lagging naval fleet is urgent, the Navy currently has 296 ships and aims to increase that number to 381 by 2054. With aging vessels set for decommissioning, more than 300 new warships will need to be built over the next 30 years. The US Navy aims to achieve a fleet of at least 381 manned battle force ships and 134 large unmanned vehicles by maintaining shipbuilding plans through 2054. However, significant challenges include industrial base capacity constraints, a shortage of skilled workers, and inflation, which slow progress and could impact the ability to reach this goal.
Conversely, South Korea ranks second globally in shipbuilding by order value, trailing only China, its largest competitor. While China leads in overall order volume, South Korea specializes in high-value vessels like LNG carriers, which gives it a technological edge in shipbuilding and a strong position in the market. As a result, the US needs to collaborate with South Korean companies to revitalize its own manufacturing sector and restructure global supply chains.32South Korean conglomerates in the limelight are Hanwha Group and HD Hyundai, which are expected to lead Seoul’s US $150 billion shipbuilding cooperation initiative, dubbed ''Make American Shipbuilding Great Again'' (MASGA), aimed at revitalizing the US shipbuilding industry. The initiative played a key role in striking the Korea-US trade deal in July this year. During the Korea-US summit, the three biggest South Korean shipbuilders, HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries, all agreed to participate in the MASGA project.
In addition to tariff negotiations, there were a number of difficult issues to deal with, including an astronomical $350 billion investment in the U.S., defense cost sharing, and agricultural product imports. Despite these challenges, the smooth progress of Lee-Trump summit in Washington in August this year was largely due to the power of the Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation project, MASGA. Reflecting its importance, Trump highlighted U.S. industrial priorities, noting,“We’re going to go back into the shipbuilding business again because essentially we don’t build ships anymore. You’re going to be doing a lot of ships in this country. So I look forward to that.”He also reiterated South Korea’s importance as a purchaser of American military equipment, describing it as both a commercial and strategic cornerstone of the alliance. President Lee Jae Myung will visit Hanwha Ocean Co.’s Hanwha Philly Shipyard, in Philadelphia on August 26,joined by senior US political and business figures. The shipyard is central to the MASGA plan, and Hanwha executives will brief about the US shipyard’s ship building plan during Lee’s visit.
Shortly after the US-Korea trade deal, Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk announced that Samsung Electronics Co would provide his company with its next-generation AI6 chips, following the South Korean firm’s announcement of a US$16.5 billion deal. Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip. The deal is expected to provide a major boost to Samsung, which has faced headwinds in its foundry business, lagging rivals SK Hynix Inc. and TSMC in the race for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips. TSMC held a dominant share of 67.6percent of the global foundry market in the first quarter this year, up from 67.1 percent in the previous quarter, Taipei-based researcher Trend Force Corp (集邦科技) reported last month. Samsung’s share slipped to 7.7 percent from 8.1 percent in the previous quarter. Apple is also working with Samsung at its fab in Austin, Texas, to launch an innovative new technology for anywhere in the world. By bringing this technology to the U.S. first, this facility will supply chips that optimize power and performance of Apple products, including iPhone devices shipped all over the world. Specifically, there have been multiple reports that Samsung is working on a triple-layer stacked image sensor for the iPhone 18. This collaboration is part of Apple's announcement on the same day of an additional $100 billion investment in the United States and the American Manufacturing Program (AMP).
Furthermore, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has landed a contract to maintain and repair a U.S. Navy vessel, marking the first order since the South Korean government proposed a joint shipbuilding project known as MASGA. The deal is viewed as a major milestone for the Korean shipbuilding industry as it enters the U.S. military maintenance, repair, and overhaul market, which is estimated to be worth 10 trillion won annually.
Furthermore, Hyundai Motor Group decides to invest US$26 billion in the US over the next four years starting this year. This is an increase of US$5 billion from the US$21 billion investment announced in March at the White House with President Donald Trump. Through this investment, Hyundai Motor Group aims to respond to U.S. government policies while expanding business opportunities in various fields to strengthen its future business competitiveness, including mobility. The key areas of investment are future industries such as steel, automobiles, and robotics. The robotics sector accounts for the majority of the newly added US$5 billion. Hyundai Motor Group decides to establish a new robot factory in the US with an annual capacity of 30,000 units. The plan is to position this factory as a hub for robot production in the U.S., playing a central role in the expanding robot ecosystem. The group plans to accelerate cooperation with leading U.S. companies in future technologies such as robotics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI), and software-defined vehicles (SDV), as well as the commercialization of Hyundai Motor Group’s U.S. subsidiaries such as Boston Dynamics and Motional. In Louisiana, the group will construct an electric arc furnace steel mill with a capacity of 2.7 million tons. It will produce high-quality, low-carbon steel plates to supply to key strategic industries in the U.S., including the automotive sector. Once the Louisiana steel mill is completed, Hyundai Motor Group expects to establish a value chain in the US spanning from steel to parts to finished vehicles, enhancing its competitiveness. What is more, the group will expand its automobile production capacity. The plan is to significantly increase the U.S. finished vehicle production capacity, which was 700,000 units last year, and establish a diverse vehicle lineup including electric, hybrid, and internal combustion engine vehicles to respond more quickly to the needs of U.S. consumers.
Additionally, Korean Air, led by Hanjin Group(韓進集團) Chairman Cho Won-tae(趙源泰), announced aUS$50 billion deal to buy more than 100 Boeing aircraft and several spare engines and obtain engine maintenance for 20 years. The deal was formalized at a signing ceremony Monday in Washington as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with President Donald Trump. The dealincludes$36.2 billion for 103 next-generation Boeing aircraft; $690 million for 19spare engines from GE Aerospace and CFM International; and $13 billion for the 20-year engine maintenance service contract with GE Aerospace.41
Ukraine and South Korea’s approach could be a pragmatic choice for Taiwan. It is reported that big datacenter left Taiwan due to worry about power shortage.42In addition, given that Trump is expecting an investment ofUS$200 billion more fromTaiwan,43our government is suggested to seriously consider investing in U.S. small modular reactors(SMRs), Taiwan's power shortage issues, while also attracting global cloud services tech giants such as Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle Cloud and so on to invest in building data centers in Taiwan, creating a cycle of investment, namely overseas investment can attract investment from overseas.
In fact, in April this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly stated that Taiwan could use energy procurement to reduce the trade deficit with the US. Shortly thereafter, Raymond Greene (谷立言), Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), stated that the U.S. is prepared to assist Taiwan in introducing existing and emerging technologies such as SMR and is willing to help Taiwan address the challenges of nuclear waste storage. To be more specific, Greene mentioned, introducing SMRs would allow the U.S. to tap into Taiwan's next wave of mainstream electricity generation. Previously, on the domestic front, Formosa Plastics and Foxconn have already proposed SMRs, and lately Pegatron Chairman Tzu-Hsien Tung (童子賢) has also strongly advocated for small nuclear power.
Data centers accounted for about 1.5 percent of global electricity consumption in 2024, an amount expected to double by 2030 because of AI use, according to a report from the International Energy Agency. They found that servers for AI accounted for 24% of server electricity demand and 15% of total data center energy demand in 2024. Countries are now building power plants and upgrading electricity grids to meet the forecasted energy demand for data centers. The US, Europe, and China are collectively responsible for 85% of data centers’current energy consumption.
In reality, green technology can hardly provide sufficient support surging demand of electricity from big data centers. That is why more and more data centers resort to nuclear reactors. No wonder that Bill Gates said that SMRs can solve the power consumption problem for semiconductors. Terra Power, a group established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates is preparing to begin construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants in Kemmerer, Wyoming.45 What is more, the European Union designated natural gas and nuclear as environmentally sustainable energy sources in 2022. Then, for the first time in 40 years, recently Sweden plans to build a nuclear power plant, reversing its policy of phasing out nuclear power. It is considering introducing small reactors from the US and UK to meet growing electricity demand.
As a matter of fact, Taiwan lacks the financial advantages of South Korean conglomerates, its small and medium-sized enterprises are not entirely without advantages. Taiwanese companies still possess considerable technological and price advantages in components. Besides being renowned for their contract manufacturing, Taiwanese companies play a crucial role in Apple smartphones, Tesla electric vehicles and American tech giants like NVIDIA, particularly with the recent surge in AI. Taiwanese companies have profited significantly from NVIDIA's supply chain.
NVIDIA outsources its chip manufacturing to TSMC, and outsources the manufacturing of its chip modules, subsystems, and servers to Taiwanese manufacturers. The NVIDIA GB200 AI server supply chain also includes several other Taiwanese companies, including Hon Hai(鴻海), Quanta Computer(廣達), Yageo Corporation(國巨), Delta Electronics(台達電), and LITE-ON Technology(光寶科) . Yageo Corporation is now the World-leading provider of passive components.
Three CEOs born in Taiwan who have made a name for themselves in the US semiconductor industry: Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) of Nvidia, Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su (蘇姿丰) of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), and Charles Liang (梁見後), co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Supermicro Computer. |
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