Big global companies say Taiwan's tech and medical strengths are too hard to copy elsewhere, so they are putting more money in — good news for Taiwan's economy, but a shrinking workforce is the catch.

• Merck has poured over NT$17 billion into Taiwan, including a chip materials site in Kaohsiung, to build key materials right next to its customers.
• BASF moved the global headquarters of its electronics materials business from Germany to Taiwan, putting top decision-makers close to the chipmakers.
• The draw is not one company or one technology but the dense cluster of chip plants, suppliers, universities and research labs that gets new tech into mass production fast.
• On the risk of conflict with China, BASF said politics, disasters and supply cutoffs are all priced in — and the opportunity still far outweighs the risk.
• Novo Nordisk, with no big factory in Taiwan, leans on the island's heavily digitized health insurance data for research it wants to use worldwide.

Outlook: The next round of investment decisions will hinge on whether Taiwan can supply enough workers, as a falling birth rate and aging population squeeze both research talent and basic factory, logistics and health-care staff.