Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai said Friday that his eight-day trip to the U.S. helped the city connect with leading global resources, while laying the groundwork for next-generation silicon photonics technology. Chen made the remarks on arriving back in Taiwan after concluding his trip to Arizona and Silicon Valley, focused on semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) development.

According to Focus Taiwan, the Kaohsiung City government announced that the delegation signed a memorandum of understanding with Arizona and Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture to advance trilateral semiconductor cooperation. The partnership aims to strengthen the stability of advanced manufacturing while demonstrating a shared commitment among democratic partners to safeguard global supply chains and build a more resilient industrial ecosystem.

During the trip, Chen also visited the University of Arizona to explore collaboration in silicon photonics. The university proposed establishing a joint “Silicon Photonics Arizona-Kaohsiung Center (SPARK)” in partnership with National Sun Yat-sen University.

On AI, Chen attended Nvidia’s GTC conference, where he shared Kaohsiung’s experience in developing sovereign AI for urban governance and exchanged views with major technology firms, including Google and AT and T.