TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said Taiwan and Japan will anchor the world’s next generation of computing as AI accelerates global demand for advanced chips, Nikkei Asia reported Monday.
“I really think of Taiwan and Japan as the two most unique countries in Asia for technology,” he said, praising their unmatched ecosystems. “If I only had two plane tickets to spend, those are the two.”
Japan, he noted, supplies essential chemicals, materials, and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. Companies such as JSR and Tokyo Electron continue to anchor the global chipmaking supply chain.
Gelsinger said Taiwan’s strength lies in its complete semiconductor ecosystem, from TSMC and MediaTek to chip-packaging houses and system manufacturers. “There is no place like Taiwan,” he said, adding that the country makes it possible to move from idea to prototype to manufacturing in a single day.
He said the US is rebuilding its manufacturing base after decades of offshoring but cautioned that the process will take “decades, not years,” per the report. Taiwan’s supply chain took 40 years to mature, he said, and similar progress in the US will require policy consistency and sustained investment.
Cost differences are not his primary concern, as core equipment such as ASML’s EUV tools cost the same everywhere. He added that automation and a large pool of US talent will help narrow the labor gap over time.
Gelsinger pointed to Arizona and Texas as crucial hubs, hosting advanced facilities from Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Foxconn, and other major suppliers. He said these clusters will shape the US semiconductor resurgence and the next wave of AI-focused hardware.
On AI, he argued that the world is still in the early stages of a decades-long transformation. He warned, though, that AI’s rapid scaling is constrained by soaring power demand and limited global energy growth.
“In a digital AI world, energy capacity equals economic capacity,” he said. The biggest bottleneck, he added, is the high cost and power consumption of inference computing.
He said geopolitics is widening the divide between China-centric and US-centric technology spheres. “You have to assume there continues to be an increasing gap in the world, and adjust your strategies with that in mind,” he said.
However, Gelsinger cautioned against letting geopolitical tension overshadow long-term goals. “Fundamentally, innovation wins,” he said, adding that leadership in technology comes only from building the best technology.
