AMD to set up R&D center in Taiwan

Taipei, July 27 (CNA) Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) will set up a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan with research teams targeting several advanced technologies, including silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and heterogeneous integration, a Taiwanese official said Saturday.

An application made by AMD, a U.S.-based AI chip design giant, for the Ministry of Economics Affairs' A+ global R&D and innovation partnership program was approved this month, according to the ministry.

It has granted more than 30 percent subsidy of the total NT$8.64 billion (US$263 million) of investment, worth NT$3.31 billion, information on the ministry's website showed.

AMD will invest NT$5.33 billion and 50 percent of its R&D workforce will be foreign talent, the ministry said.

Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧), director-general of the ministry's Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT), made public the details of how the ministry met with and negotiated with the tech giant in the past year on social media.

Chiou said the DOIT team decided to visit AMD headquarters in Silicon Valley while attending an APEC meeting in Seattle in 2023.

"Just a month before our visit, AMD had a market value of US$170 billion, surpassing Intel and becoming the world's most valuable CPU company and second in terms of AI chips," he wrote.

After nearly a year of discussion and review, the investment plan was finally confirmed following a meeting that took place during Computex Taipei on June 5 between AMD CEO Lisa Su and Minister of Economic Affairs Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝), according to Chiou.

AMD has promised to set up research teams focusing on silicon photonics, AI, and heterogeneous integration in Taiwan, he noted.

Both silicon photonics and heterogenous integration are promising technologies for advancing IC efficiency, given traditional silicon chip technology has reached its physical limits.

Because the software AMD uses for its GPUs is open-source, meaning it is freely available and can be modified, "we also negotiated for more local companies to have cooperation opportunities with AMD," the DOIT head said.

The result was that 33 domestic companies will be included in the research program, "pushing the worth of the investment up to NT$15 billion and cultivating over 1,000 AI specialists in Taiwan every year [of the three-year program]," he explained.