Paul Liu, head of Taiwan’s National Development Council (NDC) and a TSMC board member, denied speculation that the company is considering acquiring Intel’s struggling foundry business. Addressing lawmakers’ concerns, he stated that the topic has never been discussed at the board level, comparing such a move to mixing diesel with gasoline—an incompatible mix.

Former Premier of Taiwan Chuan Lin (2016-2017) once asked me, “Will the AI wave become a bubble?” I do not see any signs of a bubble. Perhaps you are thinking of the dot-com bubble, but did the internet bubble really burst? In the spring of 2000, internet stocks plummeted, and many startups closed down. However, the internet wave did not vanish; it even found greater opportunities after the launch of the iPhone in 2007. Today’s AI wave is merely a new opportunity arising from the diverse connections of big data, cloud services, and more.

Industry insiders suggest that since Huawei was placed on the US Entity List in 2019, the company has faced continuous challenges in obtaining related technologies. The license for Windows operating systems for personal computers (PCs) is set to expire in March, raising concerns that ongoing pressure from the US may hinder Huawei’s ability to secure a renewal agreement with Microsoft.