Two old tech rivals now need each other more than ever, which is good for both — and for Nvidia's customers waiting on AI servers.

• South Korea makes most of the world's high-speed AI memory, but those chips have to go to Taiwan to be packaged with TSMC's processors.
• Taiwanese firms then build the finished servers, cooling systems and racks that Nvidia ships worldwide.
• Demand is so tight that Nvidia's Jensen Huang scrawled "Please make more" on a SK Hynix memory wafer at Computex in June.
• The two countries spent decades fighting over TVs, screens, phones and memory chips — the cooperation is pure necessity, not friendship.
• Taiwan's edge is its swarm of small, flexible specialist suppliers, versus South Korea's giant all-in-one conglomerates like Samsung.

Outlook: Neither side can build an AI server alone, so whoever supplies parts fastest and integrates best keeps the upper hand.