After Work International Line: US-China AI War Begins... Did Taiwan Pick the Right Side? Edward Cheng Says Taiwan Is the 'Assembly Nation': Still Has 'These Years' of红利 to Enjoy!

The great divide in the US-China AI war is extending comprehensively from hardware to software. In June this year, the US government temporarily required Anthropic’s Claude to block API access for foreign users for 18 days. This move suddenly made global enterprises realize: software, too, can be 'cut off.'

Edward Cheng, Chairman of iKala, stated on the program 'After Work International Line' that in the future, AI models themselves will be required to have a 'switch'—a mechanism to identify user identities and shut down access at any time. He believes both the US and Chinese governments will intervene in this direction, marking an extension of the 'state advances, private sector retreats' phenomenon into the software domain.

Cheng emphasized that the concept of 'sovereign AI' is no longer just a national-level policy issue but has now descended to the corporate level. Companies must now ask themselves: 'Should I choose a Chinese or American model? Should my data be stored in the cloud or on-premises?' This logic, he noted, aligns perfectly with the supply chain risk management approach most familiar to Taiwanese enterprises—avoiding reliance on a single source, diversifying operations, and ensuring uninterrupted supply.

Taiwan Is the 'Assembly Nation,' and the Computing Power红利 Will Last 3–5 More Years

Cheng also cited Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who publicly stated that his company uses Alibaba’s 'Qwen' model, for a simple reason: it’s 'fast and cheap,' making it far more suitable than expensive closed-source APIs for enterprises that burn through large volumes of tokens. This validates the strategic logic of the open-source camp: once a company deploys its own AI, costs become fixed and do not skyrocket with usage.

Jane Lin, former Managing Director of Google Taiwan (right), attended Feng Media’s 'After Work International Line' program hosted by Lu Yi-Chen (left) on the 1st. Global computing power remains severely undersupplied, with Lin estimating this year’s shortfall at approximately 24 times demand.

So what is Taiwan’s position? Cheng analyzed that over the past three to five years, Taiwan has benefited entirely from US chip export bans and supply chain restrictions on China, developing what is known as a non-red supply chain advantage. According to data cited by Cheng, global computing power remains severely undersupplied. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang estimated last year that the global computing power gap reached 100 times demand, while Jane Lin estimated this year’s gap at about 24 times. At its May I/O conference this year, Google revealed that global token consumption has grown sevenfold year-on-year and surged 300 times over the past two years. Given this supply-demand imbalance, Cheng believes Taiwan will enjoy at least three to five more years of prosperity—regardless of whether it’s part of a non-red supply chain—because over 90% of the world’s computing hardware is still manufactured in Taiwan.

Cheng also specifically contrasted India’s situation. India has long bet on software outsourcing, but now faces the full force of the AI wave, as nearly all software outsourcing tasks can be directly replaced by models like Claude and GPT. India is陷入 a development dilemma. In contrast, Cheng said Taiwan has bet on hardware outsourcing, and he even optimistically estimates it 'can eat for another 50 years.'

Assembly Advantage Extends to Software, but Branding and International Talent Are the Biggest Gaps

However, Cheng shifted tone, warning Taiwan must not be complacent with current红利. He believes Taiwan’s long-standing role as an 'assembly nation'—skilled in risk diversification, fine division of labor, and resource integration—is precisely the capability most needed in the AI supply chain era. Taiwan has a strong opportunity to extend this to the software layer, assisting global enterprises in selecting models, feeding data, and validation—becoming a relatively neutral 'software assembler' between the US and China.

Yet, he also highlighted Taiwan’s biggest hidden concern: its long-term DNA centered on hardware manufacturing and engineering culture has led to a severe shortage of marketing, PR, international negotiation, and diplomatic talent. Once the computing红利 runs out in three to five years, hardware margins will inevitably decline due to intensified global competition. At that point, without its own brand and international storytelling capability, even B2B businesses will struggle to gain话语权 in standard-setting between the two US and Chinese camps.

Cheng urges Taiwan to seize the current AI红利 period to accelerate investment in PR, diplomacy, and lobbying talent, transforming from a passive order-taker to an active exporter of solutions and brand value on the global stage—otherwise, in five years, it risks suffering from declining margins and brand vacuum simultaneously.