Taiwan tech leaders push "made with Taiwan" model as AI demand outstrips supply

Sep 02, 2026

Taiwan's biggest chip and electronics firms are moving more production abroad, a shift that spreads risk for customers but chips away at Taiwan's grip on the world's most important supply chain.

  • Foxconn's Young Liu says the goal now is to "make with Taiwan, not in Taiwan" — customers want factories spread across countries and governments want products built at home.
  • AI demand is growing faster than Taiwan can build: TSMC's equipment spending plan for this year nearly doubled in six months.
  • TSMC is building 13 plants in Taiwan and five or six overseas, roughly triple its usual pace, and still can't keep up.
  • A shortage of chip substrates is a choke point, and much of the critical tooling comes from small Japanese suppliers already stretched thin.
  • MediaTek's Rick Tsai frames Taiwan's edge as speed and flexibility rather than location, arguing the supply chain is already global.

Outlook: Expect more Taiwanese fabs and packaging plants announced overseas, with substrates and Japanese materials suppliers the bottleneck to watch.

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