Taiwan's MOST will next year begin to promote the “Shoot the Moon Project” and develop AI chips for applications in a wide variety of terminal devices.

MOST Minister Liang-Gee Che stated that numerous well-know international companies are investing large amounts of resources into carrying out AI technology-related R&D, and they are currently faced with a bottleneck concerning how they can attain higher operational efficiency and lower energy consumption. The low energy consumption and low voltage chip designs required for AI in future terminal products are still in the early stages of development, and this is a significant opportunity for Taiwan.

Minister Liang-Gee Che also stated that MOST has proclaimed this year as year one for AI in Taiwan; nevertheless, a period of nearly four to five years is needed between the time when a product is formally developed to the time when it goes into mass production. 2022 will mark the beginning of the era when 3-nanometer can go into official mass production; consequently 2022 is a year of considerable importance.

Currently Taiwanese manufacturers including TSMC, UMC, MediaTek, Windbond, Phison, and ASE are all both engaged in technological R&D as well as production and collaborations to cultivate AI-related talent.

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)