TW Biz News｜WK 02/10 - 02/16

Every week, we'll select Taiwan's five business news from the previous week for your review.

---

• 〔Focus Taiwan〕INTERVIEW/Taiwan key partner to U.S. chip leadership: Scholar

Washington, Feb. 10 (CNA) Taiwan is playing a key role in the United States' reindustrialization and maintaining its lead over China in the semiconductor industry, an Asian studies scholar said Monday. In an interview in Washington D.C., Michael Cunningham, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's China, Asian Studies Center, told CNA that the cooperation between Taiwan and the United States was "perfect."

• 〔Focus Taiwan〕Planned TSMC Kaohsiung fabs pass initial environment impact assessment

Kaohsiung, Feb. 13 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) cleared the first stage of an environmental impact assessment for its planned fourth and fifth wafer fabs in Kaohsiung, the city's Environmental Protection Bureau said Thursday. The bureau said in a statement that TSMC's environmental impact plan regarding expanding its production site in Nanzih passed during a public review on Thursday morning.

• 〔Taiwan News〕Taipei ranked 16th best city in Asia-Pacific

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei has been ranked in the top 20 of the best cities in the Asia-Pacific by a marketing consultancy firm. On Thursday, Resonance Consultancy released its “2025 Asia-Pacific's Best Cities" report. Resonance ranked the top 100 cities with a population of over 1 million based on "core statistics and user-generated online sources such as Google, Tripadvisor, and Instagram to measure quality of place when it comes to experiential factors.”

• 〔Taiwan News〕Taiwan willing to assist friendly democracies with semiconductor development

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Friendly democratic countries are welcome to develop their semiconductor sector with Taiwan as a base, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said Saturday. His comments came as US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on semiconductors from Taiwan, while claiming the country had stolen the sector from the US. In a Facebook post, Wu said that Taiwan’s chips success was the result of 50 years of efforts by government, industry, and academia.

• 〔Taiwan News〕Taiwan graphics card sector poised for growth on Nvidia, AMD GPU launches

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's graphics card manufacturers are gearing up for a strong first half of the year, driven by the launch of next-generation GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia has unveiled its GeForce RTX 50 series, offering both high-end and mid-range models, while AMD is set to release its RX 9000 series by the end of Q1, CTEE reported. These launches are expected to drive demand, especially in the gaming sector, as gamers and eSports enthusiasts look to upgrade to the latest technology.