Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs will invest $16.4 million to create 20
shared AI models for eight priority sectors—including chemicals/plastics,
semiconductors, and healthcare—to speed adoption and cut development
and operating costs by 10%.
Built by research institutes, the models are meant to plug directly into
factory workflows so companies don’t have to start from scratch. Officials
say the effort will help firms under tariff pressure boost productivity while
advancing smart manufacturing and low-carbon transitions.
Funding will be provided through the AI Application Acceleration Program,
with projects eligible for up to about $1.0 million each.
The program has two paths: “introduction” projects, capped at $0.65 million,
help individual firms adopt AI alongside research institutes; “diffusion”
projects, also $0.65 million, back integrators that scale proven solutions to at
least eight additional companies.
To date, research institutes have developed 31 common models already
adopted by 279 manufacturers, with more on the way.
