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Taiwan Weighs High-Tech Strategic Partnership with the U.S. Amid Tariff Talks

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Taiwan is considering the creation of a high-tech strategic partnership with the United States, as Washington seeks greater Taiwanese investment and industrial cooperation, Taiwan’s top tariff negotiator said on Thursday.

Taiwan — home to the world’s leading contract chip manufacturer, TSMC — currently faces a 20% U.S. tariff on its exports and is looking to negotiate a reduction. The initiative comes as both economies explore deeper technological collaboration amid growing global competition over semiconductor supply chains.

Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who heads Taipei’s delegation in the ongoing tariff talks, said she remains optimistic about reaching a consensus with the U.S. on what she called a “Taiwan model” for investment.

“The current negotiation focus is that the United States expects us to expand investments and engage in supply chain cooperation,” Cheng told reporters in Taipei after returning from Washington.

She emphasized that Taiwan’s approach would not involve relocating its core supply chains, but rather expanding production capacity on U.S. soil in strategic sectors. The plan would include export credit guarantees, joint R&D projects, and the co-development of industrial clusters between the two countries.

TSMC’S ROLE AND THE U.S. EXPECTATIONS

While the U.S. has expressed interest in more domestic semiconductor production, Cheng clarified that TSMC was not directly involved in the latest negotiation round. The company, currently investing $165 billion in chip plants in Arizona, continues to keep most of its production operations in Taiwan.

She also dismissed recent reports that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had proposed a 50-50 chip production split, saying:

“That idea was not raised in our talks, and it is not something Taiwan would agree to.”

Cheng noted that Washington’s priority appears to be strengthening its domestic chip production to reduce supply chain dependence on Asia, while Taiwan’s long-term strategy is to stay rooted at home but expand globally through bilateral cooperation.

INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP, NOT RELOCATION

The envisioned “Taiwan model,” Cheng said, represents a strategic partnership framework—one where the island’s companies would invest in R&D and manufacturing capacity abroad, supported by governmental financial and policy mechanisms, without shifting their operational core from Taiwan.

Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has commented publicly on the discussions, which continued as the U.S. government entered a temporary shutdown this week.

With Taiwan’s semiconductor industry playing a pivotal role in the global AI and electronics boom, both Taipei and Washington are looking to balance national security priorities with economic growth.

“Our aim,” Cheng concluded, “is to remain rooted in Taiwan, deploy around the world, and build bilateral strategic cooperation that supports both sides’ technological ambitions.”

Qualcomm Moves to Arm’s Latest Tech to Boost AI Chips and Rival Apple, MediaTek

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Qualcomm has adopted the newest version of Arm Holdings’ chip architecture for its next generation of flagship processors, aiming to strengthen performance in artificial intelligence (AI) and better compete with Apple and MediaTek, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The decision represents a significant turning point in the relationship between the two companies after last year’s legal clash, which had raised doubts about whether Qualcomm would continue relying on Arm’s technology. The move is also expected to boost Arm’s revenue, as the company charges more for licensing its most advanced technology.

Arm’s shares rose 5% in regular trading after Reuters reported Qualcomm’s shift to its Arm v9 instruction set — the ninth generation of the company’s computing architecture.

AI PERFORMANCE AT THE CORE

Unlike previous generations, Qualcomm’s new PC and smartphone chips will incorporate Arm’s v9 architecture, which includes several enhancements tailored for AI tasks such as chatbots, image generation, and on-device learning.
Competitors MediaTek and Apple already use the v9 standard, which defines the fundamental instructions a processor can execute and determines compatibility with apps and software.

A Qualcomm spokesperson declined to confirm specific technologies but said the company’s internal CPU design team enables flexibility:

“We chose the instructions that make sense for our customers. That’s the beauty of having our own CPU design team — we can pick and choose the instructions that add value,” the company said.

LEGAL RIFTS GIVE WAY TO PRACTICALITY

The decision marks a pragmatic end to a strained chapter in Qualcomm and Arm’s relationship. The two companies had been locked in a licensing dispute after Arm threatened to revoke a key agreement, though it later withdrew the threat.

Despite the tensions, Qualcomm’s choice to stick with Arm’s latest architecture is seen as a vote of confidence in Arm’s long-term ecosystem.
Jay Goldberg, senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners, called the decision “very positive for Arm,” adding:

“These are companies that were fighting each other. Qualcomm could have gone a very different path here.”

ARM STRENGTHENS ITS POSITION

While Arm faces emerging competition from RISC-V, an open-source alternative architecture, analysts note that RISC-V remains decades behind in maturity and lacks a comparable developer community.

Because Qualcomm licenses Arm’s architecture rather than buying complete chip designs, the exact revenue impact for Arm is uncertain. However, the shift underscores Arm’s enduring dominance in mobile and AI chip design.

As AI workloads increasingly drive hardware innovation, Qualcomm’s adoption of Arm’s newest architecture signals that the next wave of chips will focus as much on intelligence and adaptability as on speed and power efficiency.

Samsung and SK Hynix to Supply Chips for OpenAI’s $500 Billion Stargate Project

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Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, South Korea’s top semiconductor manufacturers, have signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI’s massive Stargate project, marking a major step in Seoul’s growing role in global artificial intelligence infrastructure.

As part of the deal, OpenAI will collaborate with both companies to build two new AI data centers in South Korea, branded as “Korean-style Stargate,” aligning with President Lee Jae Myung’s goal of turning the country into an AI innovation hub in Asia. The decision leverages South Korea’s strong industrial base and its status as the world’s second-largest ChatGPT subscription market after the United States.

The agreements were announced on Wednesday following a high-profile meeting in Seoul between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, President Lee Jae Myung, and the chairmen of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

The Stargate project, unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, aims to invest $500 billion into developing next-generation AI infrastructure with global partners such as SoftBank, Oracle, and now the South Korean chip giants. The initiative seeks to secure the computing capacity needed to sustain AI’s rapid growth and maintain U.S. leadership in the field.

South Korea’s presidential adviser Kim Yong-beom revealed that OpenAI plans to order 900,000 semiconductor wafers by 2029 and establish joint ventures with Samsung and SK Hynix to operate two 20-megawatt-capacity data centers domestically.

“The significant part of the Stargate project would be impossible without memory chips from the two companies,” said Kim.

He added that South Korea may also participate in financing the project.

Altman, in his remarks, emphasized the strategic importance of Korea:

“Korea has an industrial base like nowhere else in the world that is critical for the development of AI. We’re very excited to build Stargate Korea with Samsung and Hynix to support the sovereign AI needs of the country.”

Together, Samsung and SK Hynix control about 70% of the global DRAM market and nearly 80% of the HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) market. HBM technology, introduced in 2013, stacks chips vertically to save space, boost performance, and reduce power consumption, making it vital for AI data processing.

Analysts estimate that 900,000 wafers of advanced DRAM could be worth more than 100 trillion won ($70 billion), though prices may fluctuate depending on market conditions.

In addition to the memory supply deals:

  • Samsung SDS, an IT services affiliate, signed a partnership with OpenAI to develop and operate AI data centers under the Stargate framework.

  • Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung C&T will collaborate on floating offshore data centers, designed to reduce cooling costs and carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, Google has also been in talks with several South Korean companies to explore potential AI collaborations. In June, SK Group announced a 7 trillion won investment, including $4 billion from Amazon Web Services, to build another major data center in the country.

Despite optimism about AI’s transformative potential, some investors remain cautious, citing the risk of a tech infrastructure bubble as companies rush to build large-scale data facilities.

The Stargate project, delayed earlier by prolonged negotiations and site selection, is now poised to gain new momentum through this South Korea partnership, reinforcing the nation’s position at the heart of the global AI supply chain.