Taiwan's National Development Fund expands AI investment to offshore entities with Taiwan ties
Taiwan's National Development Fund has amended its AI investment programme to allow funding for offshore companies that maintain their primary business activities, R&D, hiring or revenue generation in Taiwan. The move follows the fund's NT$10 billion (US$314.17 million) commitment over 10 years, wit
Taiwan's government has expanded the National Development Fund's (NDF) investment scope to include offshore artificial intelligence (AI) companies that conduct their primary business activities in Taiwan, the Administration for Digital Industries said yesterday. The amendment is aimed at boosting investment in AI start-ups that raise funds overseas or tap international markets while maintaining operational and research-and-development (R&D) bases in Taiwan.
The NDF in 2024 earmarked NT$10 billion (US$314.17 million) for the Ministry of Digital Affairs to invest in AI start-ups and the digital economy over 10 years. The programme launched last year, with seven years for investments and three years for divestments.
Under the expanded criteria, the ministry said it would consider investing in offshore entities whose main business activities and investment targets are in Taiwan. Eligible companies include those that set up R&D headquarters in Taiwan, spend more than 50 per cent of their total R&D budget in Taiwan, recruit more than 50 per cent of their employees from Taiwan, or generate more than 50 per cent of their total revenue from offices based in Taiwan.
Administration for Digital Industries Director-General Lin Jiunn-shiow said the government is also working with venture capital firms, accelerators and corporate venture capital investors to identify and jointly fund start-ups with high potential. The collaboration helps expand the corporate scale of start-ups and expedite their progress in public trading and breaking into the international market, Lin said.
As of August, 10 AI start-ups have received funding from the government and private investors, including Turing Drive (台灣智慧駕駛) and Linker Vision Co (鑫蘊林科). Of the total funding, NT$255 million came from the NDF and NT$570 million from the private sector. From January to August, the government invested about NT$194 million from the NDF in seven start-ups.
Turing Drive's autonomous driving demonstration vehicles began operating in Japan's Miyakojima and Uwajima Islands in the first quarter of this year and have obtained Japanese plates. The company has also brought on board Japanese autonomous driving technology firm Tier IV as an investor and is working with it to expand operations to Nagoya and Singapore. Linker Vision has joined AT&T, Cisco and Nvidia in building AI grid infrastructure, combining Cisco's edge platform, Nvidia's GPU computing capabilities and AT&T's video intelligence technology.
