On November 20, Google announced that it would set up a new hardware engineering center in Taipei, Taiwan. This facility is expected to be Google's largest AI infrastructure hardware engineering center outside the United States, integrating hardware, software, testing and laboratories, and housing hundreds of engineers. The center’s primary goal is to accelerate the pace of artificial intelligence innovation.
The technology developed by the engineering center will be deployed into Google's global data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure; these infrastructures will also support services used by users around the world every day, including search, YouTube and various tools powered by Gemini.
Google said it chose Taiwan because the region has unique advantages in building AI infrastructure, integrating all key links such as design, engineering, manufacturing and deployment. In addition, Google has already established a presence in Taiwan, including its first data center in the Asia-Pacific region, and has invested in a number of international submarine cables in Taiwan to closely connect Taiwan with the world.
The aggregation of key resources greatly shortens the innovation cycle. The geographical proximity of teams and resources allows Google to shorten the deployment cycle by up to 45% on some projects.
The office design of the new center also incorporates Taiwan’s unique local culture. According to Google, each floor is designed to show a unique journey, and the collaboration space on the top floor is inspired by Taiwanese tea culture for employees to relax and communicate. In addition, the office space balances high-energy collaboration areas with quiet areas of concentration.
It is worth mentioning that the lobby decoration uses recycled AI chips and emphasizes sustainability - annual energy consumption is expected to be reduced by 12% and water consumption by 46%.