AMD to spend $155 million on a new R&D center in Taiwan, CEO Lisa Su to announce at Computex

AMD is reportedly setting up a new research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan, with an investment of 5 billion yuan (around $155 million USD).

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The US chip manufacturer will also seek subsidies from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs' new "Big A+ Project" and that AMD CEO Lisa Su will be in Taiwan in the coming weeks for Computex 2024, where she'll also meet with the Taiwan government and discuss the new R&D center.

AMD's main GPU competitor, NVIDIA, recently applied with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for teh "Leading Enterprise R&D Deepening Plan" (referred to as the Big A+ Plan) which sees Asia's first R&D center in Taiwan, and Taiwan's largest AI supercomputer, the Taipei-1.

Now, AMD is setting up an R&D center in Taiwan, which UDN reports highlights Taiwan's key position in AI chip design and manufacturing. NVIDIA and now AMD have R&D centers there for future AI chips, and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) makes all the chips for both these companies (and many more, including Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, and more).

• Read more: NVIDIA rumored to build new R&D center in Taiwan, after first AI R&D center is a huge success

The Ministry of Economic Affairs welcomed the plan, but has four strict requirements: AMD cooperates with Taiwanese IC design companies, the developed AI servers are manufactured by Taiwanese factories, introduce more than 20% foreign R&D manpower with senior managers in Taiwan, and cooperation with Taiwanese universities for new talent.

AMD applied to the Ministry of Economic Affairs towards the end of 2023 for the Big A+ subsidy, but there are no more funds left right now, with a science and technology budget for the fifth phase of the "Forward-Looking Plan" set for 2025, pending the Lai government taking office. AMD must also submit a specific plan and wait for approval from the Industrial Technology Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Micron and NVIDIA are the only two foreign companies that have been funded by the Big A+ project, while we should see AMD building its new R&D center in the future with funds from the Taiwanese government.