Taiwan's investments in semiconductor centers in the Czech Republic will ultimately be larger than originally expected. The government-run Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) in Prague will open its first international chip design training center this September. This will complement the already announced chip supply chain research center and the upcoming chip design center in Brno.
The training center in Prague is part of the Industrial Innovation Program (Taiwan CbI) strategy. Within its framework, the Taiwanese government wants to invest approximately 9.3 billion dollars, about 220 billion crowns, between 2024 and 2033. Thanks to this, the Asian island country intends to secure its leading position, especially in the production of the most advanced chips in the world, in which companies such as TSMC, which produce chips for Apple or Nvidia, participate.
Part of the innovation program is the establishment of closer cooperation with international partners. Thanks to this, among other things, Taiwan will be able to use the capacities of foreign experts, as it itself faces limits in this regard. That is also why he started paying scholarships to Czech students in the past. TSMC is also starting construction on a factory in Dresden, where experts will be in high demand.
The Taiwanese will cooperate with CTU at the training center in Prague. The activity should train around a hundred Czech and international specialists during the first year. Taiwan will provide resources, equipment, knowledge and experts.
Taiwan will not focus on the most advanced chips in the world in Prague, it chose the same approach in Dresden. He keeps this know-how at home. The reason is the so-called silicon shield, with which the country defends itself against a possible attack by China and secures the support of the US and other Western allies. "If our semiconductor production were to be disrupted, it would be an economic disaster for the whole world," Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told e15 during a visit to Taipei. "The chips are very small, but also very powerful."
The TSRI Research Institute is part of Taiwan's National Applied Research Center NARlabs under the National Science and Technology Council NSTC. The President of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) visited here during her official trip last year together with a delegation. There, the Taiwanese presented an official offer for cooperation. This is, among other things, the result of good political relations.
The training center will not be the only one that Taiwan will open in the Czech Republic. Last fall, a center to investigate the resilience of semiconductor supply chains was announced. The Taiwanese government will provide about 134 million crowns for it until 2027. Paperwork is currently being completed. "The process of final approval of the funding by the Taiwanese government is underway," said David Emler from Charles University, where the center will operate.
And in May, the chip design center should start in Brno. It will be operated by the CyberSecurityHub group consisting of BUT, CTU and Masaryk University. Taiwan will provide about 240 million crowns for him for five years, with the fact that, according to the results, an extension is in play. NARlabs, which includes Taiwanese universities and companies, is also a partner.
Taiwanese in Brno will finance education, equipment, operation and research. He will focus, for example, on the silicon carbide semiconductor, with which the Onsemi factory in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm works, on the deployment of cyber security and artificial intelligence in chips or sensor or bio chips.
"Taiwanese people don't want it to be a box office research. They want it to be put into practice and patents and prototypes will result," outlined Jiří Háze, head of the Institute of Microelectronics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies BUT and vice president of the National Semiconductor Cluster. "The idea is that Taiwanese companies would establish their headquarters in the Czech Republic in the future thanks to this research."
Even more Taiwanese investment could come. As e15 reported , the country wants to make the Czech Republic a base for supplies for the TSMC factory in Dresden. Negotiations are in full swing.
