Taiwan’s government is furious. The Ministry of Science and Technology just announced that next year’s budget for cutting-edge fields like semiconductors, AI, and aerospace is set to shrink by T$20 billion ($609 million).
This comes after opposition lawmakers pushed through a controversial law to redirect central government funds to local municipalities. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) isn’t happy, and neither are the thousands of protesters who took to the streets last week.
A second blow came from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which warned that budget cuts could jeopardize the nation’s partnerships with global tech giants like Micron, AMD, and Nvidia. Their exact words? “Insufficient future budgets will affect Taiwan’s international AI technology partnerships.”
Taiwan’s AI dominance under threat
Taiwan’s tech industry isn’t just any industry. It’s the backbone of the global AI boom. In the second quarter of 2024, Its economy grew 5.09% year-over-year, driven largely by AI innovations and semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan makes up over 90% of the world’s AI servers.
The AI market forecast in the country is set to grow by 28.49% annually through 2030, potentially hitting $6.57 billion in value. But all that growth depends on funding, and that’s exactly what’s at risk. The cuts will strip T$11.6 billion from next year’s technology projects and a total of T$29.7 billion from economic initiatives.
If the funding goes, so does the momentum. Corporations aren’t thrilled either. A recent survey shows that 85.1% of Taiwanese companies are eager to jump into smart healthcare collaborations, and 77.7% are heavily invested in AI tech.
However, with less government support, those plans could fall apart. For a country already struggling to keep up with global software giants like Google and Microsoft, this isn’t good news.
The government rolled out the Taiwan AI Action Plan 2.0 in 2023, targeting AI integration in healthcare, labor, and sustainability. They poured money into data centers and supercomputing facilities.
These aren’t small projects we’re talking about. Taiwan’s AI infrastructure supports everything from advanced robotics to machine learning algorithms powering industries like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.
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