Can TSMC bring a new shape to AI?

Hello everyone! This is Cheng Ting-Fang, sending you greetings from Taipei, where we are experiencing the heat and afternoon thundershowers of the subtropical summer.

I recently received a call from a real estate agent in Nangang, the neighborhood in eastern Taipei where I live. "Ms. Cheng," she began, "are you interested in buying an apartment? We have some great listings." But what truly grabbed my attention was what came next: "Did you know Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang is building a new R&D center nearby? This is bound to make the area even more popular."

Even though Huang has already returned to the U.S. following his two-week visit to Taiwan for the Computex tech fair, he and his company continue to exert a surprisingly widespread impact on the island. Influencing the housing market in a specific district of Taipei is just one example. Night market stalls and traditional Taiwanese cuisine dining places where the CEO visited have been swamped with visitors, with some restaurant booking systems crashing due to the surge in reservations.

The AI frenzy has permeated Taiwanese society to a surprising level. At a local cafe, I overheard an elderly couple next to me discussing not just the record-breaking stock prices of Nvidia and TSMC, but also the subject of CoWoS, or chip-on-wafer-on-substrate. This advanced chip packaging technique, developed by TSMC, helps enhance the performance of AI chips for clients like Nvidia and AMD.

The fact that even complex industry jargon like this has become a topic of everyday conversation only underscores Taiwan's position as Asia's leading chip economy.

"Taiwan is probably the only place in the world where everybody knows what CoWoS is without explanation," AMD CEO Lisa Su said.

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