Taiwan's president used the 2026 Invest in EU Forum on September 1 to announce a landmark investment milestone and press Brussels for stronger legal protections for Taiwanese businesses operating across Europe.
Speaking at Taipei's Nangang Exhibition Center, President Lai Ching-te told an audience of more than 300 industry, government and academic representatives that Taiwanese companies' investment in EU member states has grown 650% over the past decade compared with the preceding ten years — a figure he said reflects a fundamental shift in how Taiwan's private sector approaches the European market.
From Single Factories to Cross-Border Supply Chain Clusters
Taiwan-EU bilateral trade reached nearly $75 billion in 2025, with the EU now ranking as Taiwan's fifth-largest trading partner. Lai said the trajectory is clear: Taiwan companies are no longer arriving in Europe with isolated factory projects. They are laying the groundwork for integrated, long-term supply chain ecosystems.
"These results reflect the depth of Taiwan-EU economic relations and show that Taiwanese companies have moved from one-off investment projects toward a more integrated, long-term and large-scale European presence," Lai said.
TSMC (2330) is building a chip fab in Dresden, Germany. Foxconn (2317) is expanding its AI server and manufacturing footprint across the continent. Taiwan's components and materials suppliers are evaluating follow-on investments — a pattern that suggests the Taiwan supply chain in Europe is maturing from single anchor investments toward cluster formation.
To support this trajectory, Lai called on the EU to pursue a double taxation avoidance agreement and an investment protection treaty with Taiwan. Both instruments would lower structural barriers for Taiwanese businesses operating in Europe: the first by preventing companies and individuals from being taxed by two jurisdictions on the same income, the second by providing clearer legal protections, dispute resolution mechanisms and guarantees of fair treatment.
"By integrating Taiwan and Europe's complementary strengths and building a semiconductor strategic partnership, we can create greater shared value and together build a safer, more diverse and more resilient global semiconductor ecosystem," Lai said.
Taiwan's electrical and electronics industry association TEEMA has separately announced plans to establish a technology park in Poland, with the aim of lowering the entry threshold for smaller Taiwanese suppliers — particularly in materials, equipment and components — who face steeper relative costs when entering the European market alone.
EU Director Sees Ecosystem-Building, Not Just Trade, as the Goal
Lutz Güllner, director of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan, said the forum's co-location with SEMICON Taiwan 2026 for the first time this year signals more than a scheduling decision. European representation at the exhibition was broader than in previous years, spanning EU institutions, member states, companies, industry associations and research organizations.
"Our goal is not just to buy and sell more semiconductors. Our ambitions are bigger — we want to build an ecosystem together," Güllner said.
He described the next phase of cooperation as one that connects research, design, manufacturing and end applications in a complete loop — and that runs in both directions. European companies want to invest in Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem, just as Taiwan's companies are investing in Europe's industrial base.
Taiwan's strengths in chip design, wafer fabrication, advanced packaging, materials, equipment and system integration complement Europe's world-class research institutions, semiconductor equipment and materials companies, and established end markets in automotive, industrial manufacturing, energy, telecommunications, healthcare and aerospace.
Foxconn Reveals Bordeaux Packaging Hub, Czech AI Server Plans
Zhao Yuanhan, who leads AI and quantum initiatives within Foxconn's corporate development division, said building semiconductor resilience in Europe requires thinking beyond where wafers are made. The critical question, he argued, is what happens after the wafer — from chip to module to subsystem to full system to end product.
Zhao disclosed that Foxconn is working with French companies to advance packaging operations in Bordeaux, while AI server manufacturing programs are underway in both Czech Republic and France.
"From wafer to chip, from chip to module, subsystem, complete system and end product," Zhao said, describing how Foxconn is rethinking its supply chain across Europe, the Middle East and Africa — and evaluating how to bring Taiwan's small and mid-size suppliers into local markets.
Zhao was direct about the limits of any single company's role. Neither TSMC nor Foxconn can build an entire supply chain alone. Taiwan's semiconductor and AI industry is competitive precisely because of the deep ecosystem of smaller specialized suppliers behind its anchor companies. The next phase of Taiwanese investment in Europe, he said, will focus on localizing that ecosystem around the larger anchor projects already taking shape.
The EU's planned rollout of up to seven AI Gigafactories — large-scale facilities targeting the compute capacity, energy infrastructure and data center buildout required to train next-generation AI models — adds a further dimension to the opportunity. Zhao said Taiwan companies are well-positioned to participate in these deployments and in related AI data center infrastructure, opening a new pathway for Taiwan's AI server and components supply chain into the European market.
