Taipei: Google has announced the launch of its largest artificial intelligence (AI) hardware infrastructure engineering center outside the United States, located in Taipei. This new development marks a significant expansion of Google’s presence in the region, underscoring its commitment to leveraging Taiwan’s rich technological landscape.
According to Focus Taiwan, Aamer Mahmood, Google Cloud’s vice president of platforms infrastructure engineering, highlighted during the opening ceremony that the technology developed and tested in Taipei plays a crucial role in powering Google data centers globally. These centers, in turn, support Google devices used by billions worldwide. Mahmood emphasized that Taiwan’s engineering talent, supply chain expertise, and manufacturing partnerships, along with the advantage of a local data center in Changhua County, enable Google to accelerate its development cycle and tackle complex problems more efficiently.
“This is not just an investment in an office, it is an investment in an ecosystem,” Mahmood stated, reflecting the broader strategic importance of the new center.
President Lai Ching-te attended the ceremony, expressing that the establishment of the center in Taipei’s Shilin District signifies Google’s growing confidence and commitment to long-term investment in Taiwan. He noted that this expansion highlights Taiwan’s critical role in the global technology supply chain and its emergence as a key hub for developing secure and trustworthy AI.
The opening of the center comes amidst concerns in Taiwan regarding Chinese generative AI systems, such as Deepseek, which have raised national security alarm bells. The National Security Bureau has recently urged Taiwanese citizens to remain vigilant against potential security breaches and the dissemination of “disinformation” that may favor the Chinese government.
This new center is the latest in a series of Google infrastructure investments in Taiwan, following the establishment of the Changhua data center in 2013 and two hardware R and D offices in New Taipei’s Banqiao District in 2021 and 2024.