cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/4454212

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[…] Thousands of businesses, executives and entrepreneurs […] rely on the island to turn their AI visions into reality. From Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. to OpenAI, the world’s AI frontrunners are increasingly turning to Taiwanese companies to fabricate their chips, build their servers and cool their devices. That in turn has made the island’s stock market the hottest major bourse in Asia over the past year, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

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There are risks for Taiwan. For the first time in decades, an entire technology production ecosystem will be centered not in China but its tiny neighbour. Growing tensions between the US and China may have dissuaded some AI companies from producing hardware in the mainland. Yet the rising importance of Taiwan makes it all the more alluring for Beijing, which has long described the island as a breakaway province it will eventually reclaim.

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The island is now chock-full of lesser-known firms that are just as essential for global AI development. These linchpins include server maker Quanta Computer Inc., power leader Delta Electronics Inc. and Asia Vital Components Co., a pioneer in creating computer cooling systems. Collectively, Taiwanese firms are poised to play an outsized role in an AI market that’s projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032.

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As its economy grew, [Taiwanese] companies became more sophisticated manufacturers and began to open factories in mainland China. But they always kept their most advanced techniques at home.

In recent years, the increasingly aggressive US trade sanctions on China have forced companies to scout out alternative production locations, knocking the country out of many supply chains.

In less than two years, for example, those curbs have effectively sidelined China’s AI hardware industry. Taiwan’s exports of servers and graphics cards — the building blocks of data centers for training AI models — in the first nine months of 2024 were more than double China’s output, according to data collected by Bloomberg. That’s a sharp reversal from previous years.

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