Huang's Influence Drives Taiwan Toward Physical AI Development

Taipei has become a global technology hub in June, largely due to the AI fervor surrounding NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's visit. Huang's discussions on "agentic AI," "AI factories," "AI PCs," and "physical AI" drew significant crowds to the Taipei International Computer Show, reflecting a global shift in AI development beyond cloud models and chatbots towards integrated systems and tangible applications.

“

Taiwan cannot be satisfied with just being a semiconductor island; it must become a co-designer of AI infrastructure and physical AI ecosystems.

Huang repeatedly expressed gratitude for Taiwan's ecosystem, a sentiment rooted in industrial reality. The concept of an "AI factory" relies on the seamless integration of CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, networking, memory, liquid cooling, power, and software. Taiwan's strengths in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, packaging (CoWoS), PCBs, power supplies, cooling solutions, and system integration are no longer just individual components but essential prerequisites for these AI factories. The article posits that Taiwan risks missing a value-chain restructuring if it remains solely a contract manufacturer, urging it to evolve into a co-designer of AI infrastructure.

The piece stresses that "useful AI is here," with agentic AI evolving into digital workers capable of observation, reasoning, planning, and tool utilization. The Vera CPU is positioned as a processor for this agentic era, demanding low latency, high bandwidth, and energy efficiency. Future competition will hinge not just on computing power but on overall system design capabilities. The growing strategic importance of AI PCs, edge AI, and open-source RISC-V chip designs, exemplified by Alibaba's C950 chip, highlights the need for low-power, high-efficiency, and customizable architectures for terminal AI.

“

The future competition will not just be about computing power, but about overall system design capabilities.

The influx of startups at NVIDIA's Inception Startups exhibit signifies that the AI revolution is not limited to large corporations. These startups act as translators, converting raw computing power into industry applications. To lead the AI ecosystem, Taiwan must foster a community of startups that can define applications, integrate data, and provide software services, moving beyond mere hardware exports. The rise of humanoid robots, with Taiwanese engineers optimizing robot performance using Omniverse platforms, further illustrates this shift. The core of the robotics industry is moving from hardware stability to a closed loop of data, simulation, algorithms, and physical testing. Taiwan's precision machinery, automotive electronics, sensors, motors, and components, when combined with AI simulation and digital twins, can position the island at the forefront of physical AI implementation.

“

If Taiwan combines PC hardware, edge AI, trusted cybersecurity, and vertical industry software, the PC industry may usher in a second wave of growth; but if it only sticks to manufacturing, the definition of terminal AI may fall into others' hands.