Taiwan is using its chip industry as diplomatic leverage, and this is good news for Taiwan's standing as the center of the global semiconductor world.

• Taiwan's economy ministry hosted a chip supply chain summit in Taipei with government, industry and academic representatives from 38 countries.
• President Lai Ching-te handed awards to GlobalWafers chair Doris Hsu and Micron chair Sanjay Mehrotra for their work building up the industry.
• A senior US State Department official called on allies to keep investing in each other and framed the US and Taiwan as partners guarding critical technology.
• Taiwan wants to push AI tools into a million small and mid-sized businesses, which make up 98% of its companies and employ most of its workers.
• Panels focused on trusted supply chains, silicon photonics, chips for AI robots, and keeping the chip supply chain safe from cyberattacks.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan to keep trading chip access for closer security and trade ties with the US and other partners as AI demand grows.