Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution
by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro · The Washington TimesOPINION:
Several months ago, while practicing law and journalism, I began studying artificial intelligence at Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. What I learned convinced me that the AI revolution may determine the balance of power in the 21st century.
America’s AI revolution is being built with chips manufactured just 100 miles off the coast of communist China. Chinese President Xi Jinping understands this reality, which is a central reason he is determined to take control of Taiwan.
Taiwan is home to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s unrivaled leader in advanced microchip production.
TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture between Taiwan’s government and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, which launched the island’s semiconductor development initiative in 1974. Today, TSMC produces roughly 90% of the world’s most advanced chips — the sophisticated hardware required for cloud computing, fifth-generation warfare and cutting-edge smartphones.
Although China has made significant progress in manufacturing the basic semiconductors used in everyday appliances, it remains critically dependent on Taiwan for the high-end chips that drive the global AI revolution. Because China cannot yet replicate these chips domestically, Taiwan’s manufacturing dominance has transformed from a commercial asset into a primary driver of global geopolitical tension.
American technology companies such as Nvidia, Apple and Advanced Micro Devices all depend on Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem. This means Taiwan has become indispensable to the future of artificial intelligence and the global balance of technological power.
The United States still leads the world in many areas of AI software development and chip design. Yet it remains deeply dependent on Taiwan for advanced chip fabrication, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and sophisticated packaging capabilities that cannot easily be replicated elsewhere. Washington has rightly attempted to reduce this dependence through the CHIPS Act and new manufacturing projects in places such as Arizona and Japan, but those efforts will take years to fully mature.
Mr. Xi clearly understands the strategic implications. Although China is racing to achieve self-sufficiency, it remains stalled by a lack of specialized equipment and proprietary techniques required for advanced packaging, the critical process of stacking and connecting chips that is now essential for high-performance AI. Control over advanced semiconductor and microchip production would provide Beijing with enormous leverage in the global race for artificial intelligence, a competition that will shape economic power, cyber capabilities, surveillance systems and military superiority for decades to come.
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This is why Taiwan matters far beyond East Asia.
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would not just threaten a democratic ally but could also trigger the largest technological and economic shock since World War II. Even if China could not fully absorb Taiwan’s semiconductor industry intact, its dominance of the Taiwan Strait would likely disrupt the global supply chain for advanced chips that power AI data centers, American defense systems and more.
The world received a preview of semiconductor vulnerability during the COVID-era chip shortages, which temporarily disrupted automobile manufacturing and consumer electronics. A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would trigger a far more devastating disruption. The consequences would ripple through financial markets, communications networks, military procurement and artificial intelligence research itself, potentially causing a severe slowdown in AI development across the free world.
Taiwan’s importance is not limited to manufacturing alone. The island has spent years building one of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence and semiconductor ecosystems through research institutions, engineering programs and industrial partnerships designed to accelerate next-generation chip development. Taiwan increasingly views artificial intelligence not merely as an industry but also as a national strategic priority, aiming to transform the island into an era of “smart living,” with “AI everywhere.”
Those efforts are part of Taiwan’s broader Ten AI Initiative, which aims to expand the use of artificial intelligence across the island’s economy while positioning Taiwan as a global leader in advanced computing infrastructure.
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All these factors have transformed Taiwan into the industrial nerve center of the AI revolution, which is why Beijing’s ambitions toward Taipei are not merely territorial or ideological. They are also technological.
China has rapidly transformed its navy from a regional coastal defense force into the world’s largest maritime fleet. Its construction of warships, artificial islands, large amphibious assault ships and helicopter carriers is a strategy to project naval power throughout the Pacific.
This message is unmistakable: Taiwan’s fate is intended to mirror Hong Kong’s. Control over the island could fundamentally alter the global technological balance of power.
In 1935, Gen. Billy Mitchell warned Congress that “the nation that controls the air will eventually control the world.” Six years later, Japan’s Imperial Fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, demonstrating how rapidly military technology could reshape global power.
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Artificial intelligence may prove even more transformative.
Semiconductors and advanced microchips are to the AI age what oil was to the industrial age, and Taiwan sits at the center of that equation.
The defense of Taiwan is no longer just about preserving stability in Asia. It is also increasingly tied to the preservation of Western technological leadership, economic security and the future balance of democratic power worldwide.
• Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former Washington prosecutor and senior U.S. official who serves on the editorial board of The Washington Times.
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