AI industrial park to be foundation of Taiwan's AI development: Premier

Taipei, June 15 (CNA) A new artificial intelligence (AI) industrial park to be built in Tainan will be at the foundation of Taiwan's development of AI as an industry and its application to other sectors, said Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Saturday.

During a visit to Tainan, Cho toured the site of the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City project and said the first two parts of the project that are built -- the CyberSecurity & Smart Technology R&D Building and the Shalun Green Energy Technology Demonstration Site -- represent the starting point for the science city's AI development.

The new AI park itself will extend out from those two areas, he said.

According to the National Science Technology Council (NSTC), one of the agencies overseeing the park, it will house data centers, and other sections are planned for zero-carbon technologies, quantum science, smart agriculture, smart transportation and smart medicine.

Cho said the park was being established to carry out President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) policy of supporting "Five Trusted Industry Sectors" -- semiconductors, AI, defense, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications.

Major tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD have plans to further their bases in Taiwan, and the government has the responsibility to provide good infrastructure to facilitate their investment, he said.

It will also be another base connecting with northern Kaohsiung to form a "southern smart corridor," he said.

Northern Kaohsiung is emerging as a site for high-tech parks, including the Northern Kaohsiung Industrial Park project that broke ground in 2023, and the Ciaotou Science Park aimed at attracting semiconductor, smart machinery, and space-related companies.

Also sprouting up is the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is building a fab that will produce advanced 2-nanometer wafers.

NTSC head Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said his agency will accelerate the building of data centers and work with top international enterprises to turn Shalun into an AI R&D stronghold in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said the AI park can benefit from the presence of AI research institutes at National Cheng Kung University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University's Tainan Campus and will also eventually benefit other southern cities.