Chinese Military Casts Shadow as Global Execs Flock to Taiwan Tech Show

At sea, a hostile exchange with China was brewing as AI giants including Nvidia (NVDA.O) Intel (INTC.O) and SK ​Group last week championed Taiwan’s importance as a key cog in the global supply chain.

Taiwan’s coast guard clashed with Chinese colleagues in the disputed South China Sea on Friday, the final day of the high-profile Computex conference in Taipei.“The Taiwan Strait is vital to the global economy’s stability and the lifeline of the world’s technology industry,” Taiwan’s coast guard said in a warning to a Chinese warship near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

Taiwan is home to TSMC (2330.TW) the world’s biggest contract chipmaker and supplier to Nvidia and Apple (AAPL.O) and Foxconn (2317.TW) Nvidia’s biggest server maker, and dozens of other firms working throughout the AI hardware stack.

The island is run democratically and China claims it as its territory . In recent years , and especially in the past month , China has increased military pressure to assert those sovereignty claims .

Taiwan’s military ministry reported 79 Chinese aeroplanes operating near the island during the June 2-5 Computex event, a harsh reminder about the risk to the global AI supply chain should Beijing ever make good on threats to conquer Taiwan by force.

Wednesday’s “joint combat readiness patrol” wasn’t the first in recent days by China’s military around Taiwan.

China’s defence ministry did not reply to a request for comment on its activities last week.

Billions of dollars are being invested in Taiwan to build the hardware needed to fuel the AI revolution, but there is a possible sting in the tail, said David Feith, senior scholar at U.S. think tank the Hudson Institute and a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.“There is a huge security threat, and it’s coming out of Beijing,” he told Reuters on Saturday at a seminar in Taipei hosted by DEST, a think tank sponsored by Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council.I do think that markets internationally and governments I worry are underestimating the possibility of a crisis.

JENSEN HUANG GLOW UP

Last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company plans to spend about $150 billion annually in Taiwan, up from roughly $10 billion to $15 billion five years ago. AMD CEO Lisa Su, who was not in Taiwan for Computex but visited shortly before, has announced investment of more than $10 billion in Taiwan’s AI industry.

Huang sidestepped a question on security at his news conference Tuesday, saying the supply chain should be as “diversified and as redundant” as possible so there may be resilience, and pointed to Taiwan tech firms expanding in the U.S. “That doesn’t change the fact that Taiwan is really good at manufacturing, especially technology manufacturing,” he continued. “This is the hot spot of the ecosystem,”

TAIWAN’S ‘RESPONSIBLE OBLIGATION

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te was blunter, addressing at the Computex inauguration.The government will firmly uphold peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and is dedicated to maintaining the status quo,” he said.“This is a bold national policy and the most responsible commitment made by Taiwan to the global technology supply chain.”

There’s also a tiny military side to Computex with many drone businesses participating.

Drones are a major part of Lai’s military modernising strategy.

U.S. drone maker Anduril ⁠Industries, whose inventor Palmer Luckey toured the expo on Thursday, is jointly developing a missile with Taiwan and told the official ​Central News Agency there are now some 30 Taiwanese companies in his firm’s supply chains.“There are things in this world that only exist because Taiwan is the leader in technology, and that’s not something that I want to disappear,” he remarked.