TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (國科會) reported significant progress on its next-generation high-performance computing system at the Executive Yuan meeting on Thursday (Feb. 6). The ministry aims to achieve a computing power target of over 480 petaflops (tera floating-point operations per second, a method for handling real numbers, widely used in scientific and engineering computations), by 2029, a move expected to bolster the nation's technological capabilities and competitiveness.
The National Applied Research Laboratories (國家實驗研究院, NARLabs) is spearheading this initiative, working diligently on the construction of the new supercomputing system. The efforts include establishing a large-scale cloud data center to support the computing infrastructure. In a bid to enhance computational power and energy efficiency, the Ministry of Science and Technology is leveraging projects like the "Taiwan Chip-based Industrial Innovation Program" and the "New Silicon Valley Plan."
NARLabs President Tsai Hung-ying (蔡宏營) announced that the AI supercomputer is set to become operational in May, with the National Center for High-performance Computing Internet Data Center (NCHC IDC) slated to open by the end of 2025. These developments are part of a broader strategy to provide robust support for AI applications across various industries. The Ministry of Science and Technology plans to launch a one-stop AI development cloud service platform this year, aiming to offer a user-friendly environment for generative AI development.
The ministry is also promoting a public-private partnership plan to combine resources from both government and private enterprises. This collaboration seeks to strengthen the infrastructure for AI transformation, providing essential large-scale computing services. By implementing diverse strategies, the ministry aims to drive investment and value-added services in both public and private sectors, thereby enhancing the nation's AI infrastructure and service capabilities.