Taipei, June 23 (CNA) Chip designer ARM Holdings plc, which has close ties to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), plans to increase its investments in Taiwan, its Japanese billionaire owner Masayoshi Son said Saturday.
In his first public speech in Taiwan, Son said at a tech forum in Taipei that artificial intelligence (AI) and the information revolution represent the biggest shift in human history, with AI set to dominate technology development trends and improve human lives rather than take away jobs.
After the forum, which was held under the theme "Transformation of global technology industries and capital flows," Son told reporters that ARM would expand its investments in Taiwan, in areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous vehicles, and will hire more engineers and research and development specialists.
The performance of Taiwan's semiconductor and technology industries has been outstanding, said Son, the founder of Softbank Group Corp., which is the parent company of ARM, an enterprise with close links to the world's largest contract chipmaker TSMC.
In response to a question by Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) on maximizing the returns of government-run funds, Son said there are low-risk methods such as reforming the system, recruiting experts, and maintaining a goal of high returns.
Son said he would be willing to offer his investment experience and ideas to help the Taiwan government improve the performance of its national pension fund.
The question was raised by Gou as he is seeking to obtain the opposition Kuomintang's nomination as its 2020 presidential candidate. One of the main planks of his platform has been restoring the benefits to retired military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers, which were cut by the government in 2018 to help keep the country's financially strapped pension systems afloat.
The forum on Saturday was organized by Digitimes, a daily newspaper for the semiconductor, electronics, computer and communications industries in Taiwan and the Greater China region.
