Taiwan's president has opened the door to restarting nuclear power, a shift that would be good news for the island's power-hungry chip and AI industries.

• Lai Ching-te used his National Day speech to say Taiwan will "pragmatically evaluate all energy options" and will not rule any out for ideological reasons.
• That is a notable softening for the DPP, which has run on a nuclear-free Taiwan since 1986 and let the last reactor shut down last May.
• The driver is electricity: Taiwan's AI and advanced chip plants need far more power, and secure supply is now an economic growth question.
• Timing matters too — local elections on 28 November come with a referendum on scrapping the nuclear-free policy, and the KMT has been attacking the DPP over it.
• On China, Lai said more defence spending is meant to deter war, not provoke, and offered talks on equal terms, but skipped specifics — possibly to avoid irritating Beijing before an expected US-China summit.

Outlook: Taipower's restart plan for the third nuclear plant is already under safety review, so the November vote will likely decide how fast reactors come back.