By Wen-Yee Lee and Max A. Cherney
TAIPEI, June 2 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday that maintaining the political status quo is the most responsible thing the island can do to secure global supply chains as it hosts some of the world's leading technology leaders at an annual conference.
Taiwan plays a pivotal role in the global artificial intelligence supply chain for companies including Nvidia and Apple, and its position is anchored by the world's largest contract chipmaker,
TSMC.
"As the world's need for AI grows, so too does its need for a Taiwan that is stable, trustworthy, and capable of shouldering responsibility," Lai said at the opening ceremony of Computex in Taipei, where leaders of some of the largest global technology companies are gathering.
"The government will firmly safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and is committed to maintaining the status quo," he said, adding that this was Taiwan's most responsible pledge to the global supply chain.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and operates its warships and warplanes around the island on an almost daily basis. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
China's President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump during their summit earlier this month that mishandling Taiwan could lead to conflict between the two powers.
TECH LEADERS TOUT TAIWAN'S SUPPLY CHAIN ROLE
Tech leaders including CEOs of Nvidia and Intel went out of their way at the conference to highlight Taiwan's central role in the chip supply chain as a scramble for limited production capacity intensifies to meet the booming AI demand.
"From design to manufacturing, it's all here in Taiwan," Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told Taiwan's Computex annual technology conference in Taipei.
"That's why we have multiple partnerships... We are also going to triple down in some of this exciting partnership that we have and we want to expand that," he said without elaborating.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters that Taiwan was a good strategic partner for the U.S. but said every company's supply chain should be diversified so they can be resilient.
"However, it doesn't change the fact that Taiwan is incredible at manufacturing, especially technology manufacturing. This is the epicenter of the ecosystem," he said.
He was speaking after the $5 trillion chip company announced plans last week to invest around $150 billion a year in Taiwan.
Huang plans to employ up to 4,000 workers in Nvidia's new headquarters in Taiwan, which is expected to be operational in 2030, up from 1,000 currently.
China has also ramped up pressure on Taiwan by increasing its military presence around the island.
The Computex trade show drew a record number of exhibitors this year, topping 6,000 from various sectors across the AI and computing, robotics and other next-generation technologies, its organizers said.
(Reporting by We-Yee Lee, Max Cherney, Yimou Lee in Taipei and Liam Mo in Beijing; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
