Editor’s note: Global Atlanta’s Michal Jensby traveled to Taipei with a Georgia delegation to contribute the bulk of the reporting for this article.
TAIPEI — When Taiwanese chip maker TSMC opens its massive semiconductor foundry in Arizona in 2028, US officials are betting billions of dollars in subsidies that it will help boost American tech resilience.
But the contract manufacturer, which famously has 60 percent market share for high-value chips destined for customers like Intel, Apple and Nvidiacan’t do it alone.
Like an auto-maker, TSMC will bring a bevy of suppliers that will fan out around the southwestern state, creating a growing awareness of Taiwan’s tech prowess and a considerable need for new housing starts.
That’s the intersection where Smartopia, a new smart community just one highway exit away from TSMC in Peoria, Ariz.hopes to carve out a market niche.
Traveling in Taipei for the Smart Cities Summit and Expo 2024, a Georgia delegation of municipal leaders and journalists got an up-close look at plans for the 800-unit development that aims to take advantage of the “TSMC effect” bringing in companies like Taiwan’s Amkor Packagingwhich is investing $2 billion in a semiconductor packaging plant that will employ 2,000.
During a meeting with the Georgia Tech Alumni Associationorganizers at consulting firm Paul Hsu & Associates pitched Smartopia as a demo site for Taiwan’s “invisible champions” — the often-unseen providers of hardware, software and Internet-connected components that make smart cities function.
That’s the demand side of a value chain where Taiwan holds an essential middle position, he says Lee Wei-fenga former university professor helping lead the project.
“We have the brains of the smart-city industry,” Dr. Lee said of Taiwan. “Chip manufacturing is original and upstream. The middle stream is actually those ICT components — devices, routers, AIs, software, phones and devices, sensors. But what’s downstream? It’s actually the smart life, so if you have the community using or facilitating all these smart functions, you take care of the entire smart-city industry.”
A microcosm of Taiwan’s global leadership
The 144-acre planned community targeting young professionals is a microcosm of how Taiwan is pitching itself as a trusted provider of solutions in a world that is growing increasingly connected even as concerns mount over data privacy and bias within artificial intelligence, to name a few.
Taiwan’s global leadership — and desire to share this position with the world — was hammered home during the Smart Cities Summit and Exhibition, which drew more than 500 city leaders from 112 cities (including the mayors of Woodstock and Warner Robins, Ga.) and another 1,600 buyers who interacted with the latest tech from Taiwan, perused 2,000 booths and shared insights on panel discussions.
“Taiwan has become a very important partner to cities across the world,” Paul SL Pengchairman of the Taipei Computer Associationwhich organized the summit, said during the opening ceremony.
Government officials like Lin Chia-lungsecretary-general to the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wensaid during his remarks that Taiwan can “not only help, but it can also lead.”
“In the future Taiwan’s manufacturers will fight together, first to integrate in Taiwan, and then to export their successful experiences to the world,” Mr. Lin said.
The comments came at a time when Taiwan was squeezed geopolitically by tensions between the US and Chinagreat powers whose ideologies often clash in the realm of technology.
While China was not mentioned, Taiwanese officials played up their openness, transparency and commitment to cybersecurity during the conference — aspects sure to resonate with US officials operating in a tech environment where any Chinese influence, as evidenced by persistent calls to ban TikTokalso seen as suspect.
Arthur Wangwho works with the think tank Institute for Information Industry and serves as co-director of Taiwan’s Smart City Project Officesays solving problems, both for citizens and cities themselves, should be the main force driving any smart-city developments.
Taiwan has created a framework for “public-private-people” partnerships that helps communities pilot solutions for problems arising with traffic congestion, aging populations and urbanization, to name a few, Mr. Wang said during a US smart-city leadership panel where Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell also shared his thoughts and expertise.
“We need to try to introduce current technology like AI and Internet of Things not only to the big cities but also to small towns and rural areas, and that’s what we are trying to do in the future,” Mr. Wang said. “Also, we’d love to share our experiences from Taiwan — our solutions, our thoughts and our future together.”
Georgia can benefit from Taiwanese innovation
Mr. Caldwell, who was pleasantly surprised to find that Woodstock was already deploying many of the cutting-edge solutions seen on the expo floor, nevertheless expressed interest in further exchanges as he toured the AI for All booth operated by the city of Taoyuanwhich showcased digital twin technology, an AI “Mayor” chatbot for city governments and monitoring systems for scooter exhaust.
“We have more tools and assets and resources at our disposal as leaders than any generation has ever had before, for less money than it has ever cost before,” Mr. Caldwell told Global Atlanta. “Every city should be doing this. We should all be leveraging these resources, and it’s waiting for us. All we have to do is go learn what’s out there.”
Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick similarly viewed the trip as a way to set her city up for a position of leadership, informed in part by expertise she encountered in Taiwan.
“When it comes to Smart City, when it comes to innovation, when it comes to AI, I want to be in the driver’s seat,” Ms. Patrick said, noting that many cities the size of hers have yet to venture into these spaces . “I would like to be one of those individuals who is willing to take the risk, even when the others around me don’t want to take the risk.”
“When it comes to AI, I want to be in the driver’s seat.”
Larhonda Patrick, mayor of Warner Robins, Ga.
Orchestrating these kinds of collaborations was a key reason Taipei and Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta helped drum up interest in the March 19-22 expo in Taipei, which happens to be a sister city of the Georgia capital as well as Phoenix, where the Smartopia project will be based.
Martin Chendirector of TECO Atlanta’s Economic Division, said sharing best practices of Georgia communities with global audiences while showcasing innovations of Taiwanese communities like Taoyuan can only “promote closer economic and trade cooperation between Georgia and Taiwan.”
“Taiwan has many ‘invisible champions,’ and if these advanced technology and product suppliers can be discovered by Georgia companies, it will undoubtedly promote more new business collaborations, mutual investments and joint efforts to seize global opportunities.”
See the full press release from the Taipei Computer Association:
Press-Release_2024-Smart-City-Summit-Expo-Officially-Begins-with-Record-High-International-Business-Visitors-2
