Taiwan drums up millions in USA for tech business

Taiwan drums up US tech business
Image by larich | Bigstockphoto

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has drummed up new business worth T$30 billion ($940 million) in meetings with top executives at four major tech firms in California’s Silicon Valley, the ministry said on Saturday.

Taiwan’s economy minister, Wang Mei-hua has been in the United States all week to respond to what her office has called “concerns” about supply chains and geopolitical issues.

Taiwan USA tech business
FILE PHOTO: Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua speaks during an interview with Reuters in Taipei, Taiwan, September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Ann Wang

Taiwan supplies major tech firms

Taiwan is a major semiconductor producer, home to the world’s largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, and supplies most of the world’s major tech firms.

The island’s position as a producer has prompted worries in the United States it is too reliant on Taiwan, especially as China ramps up military drills to assert its sovereignty claims.

Wang met executives on Friday from NVIDIA Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Applied Materials Inc and Synopsys Inc, the ministry said in a statement, adding that she “got great interest” from them.

“The visits are expected to bring back US research and development investment and orders in Taiwan worth more than T$30 billion,” it said, without elaborating.

The ministry said Wang met with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson, Cisco senior vice president and global innovation officer Guy Diedrich, and Synopsys chairman and CEO Aart de Geus.

NVIDIA declined to comment on the meeting. The other three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wang said on Tuesday that if Taiwan remains safe, global supply chains of vital semiconductors would also be secure.

($1 = 31.9720 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.