Asia bets on AI specialization over self-sufficiency
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- Taiwan anchors the AI chip stack through TSMC, which produces the world's most advanced semiconductors; Foreign Minister Francois Chih-chung Wu declared in late 2025 that leading-edge chipmaking "must remain in Taiwan."
- South Korea's government, Samsung and SK Hynix have committed roughly US$600 billion (£446 billion) to two new chip plants, with Samsung and SK Hynix together controlling nearly 80% of the global high-bandwidth memory market that AI processors depend on.
- Japan is targeting US$65 billion in public-private physical AI investment by 2040 — roughly a tenth of Korea's commitment — with SoftBank and Sony heading the Noetra consortium to build AI models for robotics and factory-floor applications.
- Vietnam plans to train 50,000 chip engineers by 2030 and has restricted exports of unprocessed rare-earth minerals to push up the value chain; Nvidia is partnering with Vietnamese telecoms firm FTP on R&D and AI data centres.
- Anthropic is reportedly collaborating with Samsung on a new AI chip, deepening US-Asian ties inside the chip stack.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, on his July Asia tour, called Taiwan the "epicenter" of the AI revolution and praised South Korea's infrastructure as positioning it to become a global AI leader.
- AI-driven stock surges in Taiwan and South Korea have since reversed, fuelling concerns about wealth inequality and market volatility in the same economies making the biggest strategic gains.
Why it matters: With Samsung and SK Hynix committing $600 billion and TSMC dominating leading-edge chipmaking, a handful of Asian economies now hold the AI supply chain's most irreplaceable positions. The article's author notes that 'winning' the AI race is already generating wealth inequality and stock-market volatility in those same countries — the social cost of indispensability.
