In today&#x27;s deep dive, Zaid breaks down how Taiwan became the epicenter of AI. We cover the founding of TSMC, why AI made Taiwan borderline irreplaceable, the economic boom that has Taiwan growing faster than almost every country on Earth, why Nvidia is spending $150 billion a year there, and the geopolitical risk that has Washington warning of an &quot;economic apocalypse&quot; if something goes wrong.

Deep Dive: How Taiwan Became the Epicenter of AI

The Rundown

Welcome back to The Rundown for another Weekend Deep Dive. Today, we are talking about Taiwan and the role that it plays in the AI economy. Today, almost every chip in the world is made in Taiwan. That includes the chip on your iPhone, likely the chip in your car, and of course, all the state-of-the-art chips sitting inside AI data centers. But how did Taiwan become the epicenter of semiconductor manufacturing? Well, in today's episode, we're going to break down how Taiwan became the AI chip factory of the world.

And why companies like NVIDIA are doubling down on the island. We also take a look at the risk this creates for the global markets and why some tech companies and the US government, for that matter, are looking at alternatives. We got a great one for you today. Let's dive in. Taiwan's dominance in chip making didn't happen by accident. The Taiwanese government actually started building up the industry back in the 1970s. See, back in the early 70s, Taiwan was still mostly known as a low-cost manufacturer.

They were making mostly cheap goods for Western companies. But Taiwan's government was worried that eventually an even cheaper country would come along and undercut them. And, you know, they were right about that. Luckily for Taiwan, though, they started focusing on specialized manufacturing like semiconductors.

Back in 1973, Taiwan created a government-backed tech lab called the Industrial Technology Research Institute, or E-TRI. And the lab's job was to incubate strategic industries. And, you know, they made some early moves. Like in 1976, E-TRI signed a deal with the American company RCA to license their chip manufacturing technology. There's a throwback name that I haven't heard in a while. RCA, man.

Deep Dive: How Taiwan Became the Epicenter of AI

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Deep Dive: How Taiwan Became the Epicenter of AI

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.