Kaohsiung mayor visits U.S. tech giants for AI, semiconductor cooperation

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who is leading a delegation to the United States, visited several major American technology companies, including cloud service provider Google and telecom firm AT&T, in the Silicon Valley on Wednesday, to explore potential cooperation, the city government said.

In a statement released Thursday, the Kaohsiung City government said Chen's delegation also visited MSS USA, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based semiconductor material analysis provider MSS Corp., as well as the Hoover Institution, in a bid to strengthen ties in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor development.

The visit to Silicon Valley aimed not only to seek collaboration opportunities with U.S. companies but also to boost Kaohsiung's international visibility, the statement said.

Chen also exchanged views with representatives from these organizations on geopolitics and energy security, with a focus on ensuring Kaohsiung's industrial development to adapt to a rapidly changing global environment and undergo a smooth transformation.

During his visit to the Hoover Institution, Chen met with political scientist Larry Diamond and senior researcher David Fedor to discuss global supply chain resilience and energy policies amid rising geopolitical tensions.

According to the statement, Chen noted that during Diamond's 2025 visit to Kaohsiung, the two initiated a dialogue on democratic values and industrial cooperation. During Chen's current U.S. trip, Diamond also helped facilitate a memorandum of understanding signed on March 12 among Kaohsiung, Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture and the U.S. state of Arizona to establish a trilateral semiconductor partnership.

Meanwhile, Chen promoted Kaohsiung's "sovereign AI" initiative in a meeting with Google's AI research and development team, aiming to integrate the company's resources into city governance. The initiative seeks to enable transportation systems and other public policies to be guided by AI-driven inference rather than solely by data processing.

Kaohsiung is also planning to collaborate with Google's Project Green Light to enhance smart transportation, the statement said. The AI-based platform is designed to improve traffic flow, reduce congestion and lower greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing traffic signal timing.

In addition, Chen discussed with AT&T ways to advance the city's "Smart Lighthouse Project," which aims to enable low-latency communications.

Earlier, on Monday, Chen promoted the project on the sidelines of Nvidia GTC in San Jose, California, seeking partnerships with global technology firms.

Chen, who departed for the United States on March 11, is scheduled to return to Taiwan on March 20.