Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) The Cabinet on Thursday approved a chip plan that will see the government inject NT$300 billion (US$9.28 billion) over 10 years to spur industrial innovation in Taiwan.
Citing Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) at a press conference, Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said the “Chip-Driven Industrial Innovation Plan” seeks to combine generative AI with Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor development.
With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), chips have become a core driving force behind the development of the global technology industry, Chen was quoted by Lin as saying during the event.
The chip-driven plan, drafted by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in collaboration with several other ministries, focuses on four key fields — combining generative AI with chips to promote innovation; enhancing the domestic talent incubation environment and attracting global R&D talent; accelerating innovations in heterogeneous integration and advanced technologies; attracting international startups and venture capitalists to Taiwan.
The project will have a budget of NT$12 billion in 2024, with the total amount being NT$300 billion from 2024 to 2033.
According to the NSTC, in order to accelerate the move towards advanced processes, the project seeks to improve Taiwan’s chip design and heterogeneous integration capabilities.
During the event, NSTC chief Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said that approximately NT$8 billion of the NT$12 billion budget to be allocated next year will be used to cultivate and attract talent, while NT$4 billion will be spent on developing generative AI and chips, and measures to attract international investment in Taiwan.
The media often talks about Taiwan’s strengths in advanced process manufacturing, but technologies such as 3DIC, which is a three-dimensional integrated circuit built by vertically stacking different chips or wafers together into a single package, is key to the future, Wu said.