Although confusion is being intensified by export controls and tariff policies on semiconductors, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted, the artificial intelligence (AI) market is just beginning. Taiwan, with its established ecosystem of foundries, fabless companies, servers, and hardware, is expected to strengthen its role as an 'AI hub' even amid the trade war.
On the 19th, the day before the opening of Asia's largest computing and IT exhibition, Computex 2025, a representative from TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council), one of the organizers, said this. Amid the chaos within the Taiwan AI and semiconductor ecosystem due to U.S. export regulations against China and tariffs from the second Trump administration, confidence was expressed that its standing in the AI market would solidify further.
◇ Despite semiconductor export restrictions and tariff effects, the event is 'heated'... Big tech leaders gather
The first floor of the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, where Computex 2025 is held, saw over 100 people crowd in before the opening for pre-registrations. Staff were busy conducting final booth checks on the exhibition floors (75,600 square meters) of Exhibition Halls 1 and 2, which together are the size of four soccer fields, to welcome visitors. Despite some areas in the exhibition hall not yet completed, attendees flocked there from the day before the opening to experience new products from local corporations, including Nvidia, Asus, MSI, and Acer.
Kicking off from the 20th to the 23rd of this month, 'Computex 2025,' hosted by TAITRA and the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), will take place at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei under the theme 'AI Next.' About 1,400 corporations from 29 countries globally will participate, setting up approximately 4,800 booths. Originally started in 1981 as an exhibition focused on parts for Taiwanese computer manufacturing and assembling companies, Computex has emerged in recent years as a venue where global big tech corporations showcase AI technologies and solutions. This is attributed to the growth of the AI market and the close ties between global big tech firms such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel with Taiwanese manufacturers including TSMC.
As the phrase 'Star Wars' suggests, the venue for this year's Computex will see a significant presence of big tech CEOs. Starting with a keynote speech by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the 19th, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Supermicro CEO Charles Liang also took the stage. Lip-Bu Tan, who newly leads Intel as of March this year, also visited Computex. Before the opening, Tan participated in Intel's '40th Anniversary Celebration' in Taiwan with top executives and will later check the exhibition booths. Keynote speeches from Foxconn, MediaTek, and NXP, as well as forums on generative AI, robotics, and edge AI, will also be held.
◇ Korean corporations such as SK hynix and Samsung Display also attend
Domestic corporations also attended this Computex to target global big tech clients and the Taiwanese market. SK hynix, a leader in AI memory semiconductors like high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced DRAM, will open a booth to showcase its AI memory solutions. SK hynix has been supplying HBM almost exclusively to Nvidia and is collaborating with TSMC for the development and mass production of the sixth generation HBM (HBM4). Kwak Noh-jung, president of SK hynix, and others will also visit Taiwan to meet with partners like TSMC to discuss cooperation.
Samsung Display will also participate in this event for the first time. In a market dominated by IT companies such as Asus, MSI, and Acer, it is expected to tighten its approach to the IT OLED market. Samsung Display has officially announced its investment in the world's first 8.6-generation IT OLED production facility, 'A6,' in 2023. The company plans to invest 4.1 trillion won by next year to achieve a production capacity capable of supplying 10 million panels annually for laptops.
Domestic semiconductor startups, including FADU and Mobilint, plan to showcase their technologies during Computex in Taiwan. FADU will operate a business showroom to present SSD controllers to clients, while Mobilint will unveil AI semiconductors based on neural processing units (NPU) optimized for various AI models, including video recognition.