MODA to spend NT$100 million on AI chip purchases, others in 2025

Taipei, Oct. 19 (CNA) The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) is planning to spend NT$100 million (US$3.12 million) in 2025 to purchase artificial intelligence graphics processing units (GPUs) and facilitate an AI computing platform initiated by the ministry.

The NT$100 million will be also used to improve cybersecurity under the AI computing platform, MODA said Saturday.

A MODA official said the platform will be particularly important for startups and smaller companies.

The ministry has chosen 64 qualified applicants since it started taking applications to use the AI computing platform in July, more than half of which are startups, the official said.

The plan to buy no less than 70 GPUs next year will allow the qualified applicants to use them for free, according to the official.

The official echoed Digital Affairs Minister Yennun Huang (黃彥男), who said in a recent interview that many small and medium-sized enterprises faced difficulties in developing AI computing because of the huge expense and their limited capital, making government help a must.

Depending on the specification, an AI GPU can cost thousands or tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.

Huang said that if these SMEs and startups are allowed to use GPUs for free under the MODA AI computing platform, they will be able to develop products on a trial basis to find commercial value in the future.

According to MODA, the AI computing platform is part of its four-year cross-domain digital public infrastructure and digital services ascendancy program.

The program is aimed at laying a sound foundation for the local software industry to develop AI applications for commercial use and boost Taiwan's competitiveness in the digital sector.

In 2024, MODA's Administration for Digital Industries bought 32 advanced H100 CPUs from U.S.-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp. and eight sophisticated MI300X GPUs from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., another American AI GPU designer, to assist SMEs and startups.

Next year, the planned purchase of an additional 70 GPUs will inject new momentum into the AI computing platform, where qualified applicants will be allowed to use these devices owned by the platform for six weeks for free, MODA said.

The ministry said the 64 qualified applicants under the AI computing platform are expected to develop their AI applications in a wide range of fields, including philanthropy, education, health care, disaster prevention, manufacturing and transportation.

One of the qualified applicants wants to develop a multi-language translation device by integrating Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka and Southeast Asian languages such as Thai and Indonesian languages into a data base, to help immigrants in Taiwan communicate more easily.

Another qualified applicant, according to MODA, is taking data from more than 170,000 reports on rainfall volume, sewage capacity and flood records to try to build a model that can predict flooding.

A third applicant is hoping to strengthen enforcement of environmental protection laws by setting up an air pollution prevention model powered by AI technologies, MODA said.