TAICHUNG (TVBS News) — Taichung launched an industry alliance Wednesday (Aug. 26) to position Taiwan's second-largest city as a global hub for Physical AI — robots that operate in the real world. The initiative bets that decades of precision manufacturing give the city a head start in building the machines' bodies.
Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) unveiled the "AI Taichung Team" (AI臺中隊) at a forum co-hosted with Tunghai University (東海大學), calling on industry leaders to help transform the city into an "AI robot capital."
"If AI gives robots a brain, then how do they get a body to walk into the real world?" Lu said, addressing the executives. "The R&D, production, and manufacturing of that body must rely on precision machinery, high-end machine tools, and key components, and these are all strengths of Taichung's manufacturing sector."
Lu described the robotics industry as a once-in-a-century opportunity and said the city government would push to make Taichung a base for Physical AI research, manufacturing, and field verification.
Phison CEO Pua Khein-seng (潘健成) said Taichung's established ecosystem positions it well for the shift to Physical AI. "AI basically has two things — it's a brain, it's logic, it's compute," Pua said. "But go to the robot, you need a lot of components, and Taichung has a good ecosystem. It's proved, right? Not only for Taiwan but also for the (world)."
Tunghai University President Chang Kuo-en (張國恩), whose institution co-hosted the event, said the city government's policy is leading Taiwan's development in robotics and drones. "I deeply feel that our city government's policy is truly leading Taiwan's overall development," Chang said, speaking after the mayor's remarks.
The initiative comes as Taiwan's manufacturing sector rides strong demand for AI-related products. The island's industrial production index hit a record high in July, with machinery production up 19.75 percent year-on-year, according to Ministry of Economic Affairs data released Monday.
A Taiwan-based think tank, the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), recently identified a "golden but narrowing" three-to-five-year window for democracies to build robotics supply chains outside China, which accounted for 85 percent of global humanoid and quadruped robot shipments in 2025.
Taichung, home to Taiwan's largest concentration of machine tool makers, sits at the center of what Lu called a "golden corridor" — hosting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Micron Technology facilities producing AI computing chips. The mayor said the city would deepen ties with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and leverage its 17 universities.
Among the products on display was "AiBao" (愛寶), a healthcare robot developed by EverBot Technology (長聯科技) designed to reduce nurses' workload by 30 to 50 percent. Erin Huang (黃凡芩), an EverBot project manager, said patients react with surprise when they first see it. "They see it and their eyes light up," she told TVBS.
Details on funding, governance structure, and specific partnership commitments were not immediately available. The city government did not specify which manufacturers had formally joined the alliance.
Sheena Liu (劉文硯), general manager of TVBS, said trust would be the defining challenge for Physical AI. "If AI makes a mistake, the cost is extremely high," Liu warned. ◼