Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop industrial parks in the US that would build a base for a comprehensive supply chain for Nvidia Corp.
Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop industrial parks in the US that would build a base for a comprehensive supply chain for Nvidia Corp.
Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop industrial parks in the US that would build a base for a comprehensive supply chain for Nvidia Corp. and other AI hardware makers in the country.
The initiative is starting with a complex in Texas that would cost as much as $4 billion to build, according to Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin. The facilities would help smaller suppliers that are essential to the operations of Nvidia’s main production partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AI server assemblers including Foxconn Technology Group to set up shop in the US, Kung said.
Each complex would run between $2 billion and $4 billion to build, and the government is planning “more than one” site on US soil, Kung said in an Oct. 12 interview with Bloomberg News. The Taiwanese government is partnering with the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association, which will be responsible for raising required funding to develop the complexes, he said.
“We are going to establish a long-term, sustainable supply chain there that can also be joined by American firms and local workers, and not just Taiwanese companies,” Kung said.
Companies like TSMC, Foxconn and Wistron Corp. provide essential hardware for data centers and are critical to the success of US AI chipmakers including Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and cloud service providers such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. These Taiwanese manufacturing titans depend in turn on lesser-known partners that make a wide range of parts from chip packaging substrates to cooling modules — everything that’s required in an AI data center.
But while TSMC and Foxconn are capable of funding and managing their own US expansion, that’s not always the case for smaller firms. That’s how Taiwan is hoping the new industrial complexes in the US could help.
Many of these suppliers got a boost from Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang when he cited the names of a few dozen parts makers during a keynote presentation in Taipei earlier this year, a gesture that signaled how indispensable the firms are to the global AI ecosystem.
Taiwanese officials will back suppliers that seek to operate in these parks, including by offering loan guarantees and helping communicate with local and federal officials in the US on needs ranging from visas to land, Kung said. Earlier this year, Taiwan pledged to help support $250 billion in credit guarantees for further investment in the American semiconductor supply chain as part of its trade deal with the US.
Taiwan has already secured a plot of land for an industrial park in Texas, according to a person familiar with the matter. In response, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said it will elaborate on the plan at a suitable time.
Averytin News Financial update.