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.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS