Taiwan showcases chip diplomacy amid pressure to share AI wealth

When you produce roughly 90% of the world’s advanced logic chips, you don’t need to beg for a seat at the table. Taiwan is leaning into that reality at SEMICON Taiwan 2026, using the annual trade show as a stage for chip diplomacy. The event featured 18 national pavilions and drew officials from the US, the EU, and a range of other countries. President Lai Ching-te and Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin used the spotlight to project a message of resilience, shared prosperity, and indispensability. The numbers behind the leverage Taiwanese companies are set to invest an additional $20 billion in the US, building on a January 2026 deal in which Taiwanese firms pledged approximately $250 billion to diversify production across borders. That deal also came bundled with roughly $250 billion in government guarantees. TSMC’s commitments in Arizona alone total approximately $265 billion, one of the largest foreign direct investments in US history. Diplomacy with a silicon backbone The EU is promoting its Chips Act 2.0 as a framework for deeper collaboration with Taiwan, recognizing that Europe’s own semiconductor ambitions require partnerships with the countries that actually know how to make ...