Taiwan to advance photonics, wide-bandgap semiconductors, and quantum as AI-era compute layers

Taiwan's government signaled a policy pivot toward photonics, wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, and quantum computing as foundational alternatives to traditional silicon for scaling AI workloads. The shift reflects shared semiconductor-industry conviction that optical interconnects and GaN/SiC power delivery unlock better density and efficiency for large-scale training and inference.

For data center operators and AI infrastructure planners, this signals supply-chain diversification away from pure silicon and the emergence of multi-material compute stacks. Photonics and WBG adoption timelines are 2–4 years; expect Taiwan fabs and TSMC satellite foundries to prioritize R&D and wafer capacity accordingly.