Washington, March 11 (CNA) Washington "must partner with Taiwan" to ensure the most powerful artificial intelligence systems are fully built in the United States, the head of the US-Taiwan Business Council said Tuesday.
In a special commentary, US-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers said that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) "currently operates a near monopoly" on high-end chips.
As a result, Washington "must partner with Taiwan" to achieve U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance's goal of ensuring that "the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed-and-manufactured chips."
"Taiwan is already a key collaborator and can serve as the indispensable AI hardware partner in the U.S. effort to remain the global leader for this transformative technology," Hammond-Chambers said.
U.S. President Donald Trump's rhetoric has shifted from criticizing Taiwan's dominance after TSMC's March 3 announcement that it would invest an additional US$100 billion in the U.S.
Although fears remain that the U.S. could go from "a tight partnership with Taiwan to seeing its semiconductor industry absorbed by Beijing," Hammond-Chambers said, "the strategy here must be about risk mitigation, not moving TSMC's entire ecosystem."
President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has "been clear that the island nation will keep leading-edge technology in Taiwan, only allowing technology 1-2 generations behind the most advanced production to head overseas," Hammond-Chambers added.
"A delicate dance is therefore underway in Taipei to address President Trump's concerns -- thereby minimizing broad damage to U.S.-Taiwan bilateral relations -- while also trying to ensure that TSMC remains headquartered in Taiwan as the most important semiconductor company in the world," he said.
