AMD's new R&D center confirmed for Taiwan: 33 partners in Taiwan for R&D cooperation

According to new reports, AMD has inked a deal to build a new research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan.

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In a new article by CNA in Taiwan, we're hearing that Qiu Qiuhui, the Director of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairrs, confirmed the "secret of the operation" that AMD's GPU and AI software platforms are open architectures, listing 33 manufactures in Taiwan to participate in R&D.

It's expected that an estimated 15 billion yuan (around $2 billion USD or so) in new investment, with over 1000 new AI staffers employed every year in Taiwan. Twiwan has the advantage of being home to the biggest semiconductor industry cluster, with major AI chip companies like AMD and NVIDIA applying to set up new R&D centers in Taiwan. This is on top of TSMC making the most advanced chips for the biggest companies on the planet.

Economic Minister Kuo Chi-hui revealed in an exclusive interview with China Central News Agency this week that AMD's application fo its "A+ project" has been approved, with total project funding hitting NT$8.64 billion (around $260 million USD or so) and a subsidy of 30% or so from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

• Read more: Two cities in Taiwan are fighting for AMD's new R&D center investment
• Read more: AMD to spend $155 million on a new R&D center in Taiwan, CEO Lisa Su to announce at Computex

Qiu Qiuhio, the Director of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, revealed the new AMD R&D center in Taiwan on Facebook, where he told a story of an opportunity to go to Seattle to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and "discussed with colleagues whether to go to Silicon Valley, AMD is recruiting investment".

He said that at the time, AMD's market value had just passed $170 billion USD, officially surpassing Intel and becoming the world's most valuable CPU manufacturer, and the second largest AI chip company on the planet.

He admitted that compared to the negotiation with NVIDIA to set up its new R&D center in Taiwan 4 years ago, that NVIDIA's stock price at the time was at a "low point" and that no one was optimistic in NVIDIA that it would bring the AI surge across the world in the last 18 months.

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On August 9, 2023, Qiu Qiuhui took her colleagues to AMD's headquarters in Silicon Valley, where AMD senior VP David Wang led the team personally. Qiu Qiuhui said: "your competitors have already made large-scale R&D deployments in Taiwan. If you don't act quickly, the gap may widen even further".

AMD is reportedly establishing silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and heterogenous integration R&D teams in Taiwan. From its new R&D base, AMD can work with domestic manufacturers and universities, on next-gen AI processors, AI GPUs, and the possibilities of setting up a new AI supercomputer in Taiwan.