Google recently announced the opening of its new office in Shilin District, Taipei, naming it the "Google Taiwan AI Infrastructure R&D Center." This new location not only represents Google's continued investment in Taiwan but also confirms that it will become Google Cloud's largest office outside of its US headquarters. Google emphasized that its Taiwan team has grown three times in size, bringing together top talent from around the world, demonstrating Taiwan's crucial role in the global AI and cloud infrastructure supply chain.
Senior executives from Google headquarters also made a special trip to Taiwan today to witness this milestone together with the head of the Google Taiwan team and government dignitaries.
Located on Chengde Road in Shilin, it meets LEED Platinum certification standards.
The new research and development center is located at No. 168, Section 9, Chengde Road, Shilin District, Taipei City. Google has leased the upper floors, from the 12th to the 20th, a total of nine floors, in this new 20-story commercial building.
It's worth noting that the building itself meets the 2024 LEED v4 Platinum certification standard, echoing Google's corporate commitment to sustainability and energy conservation. The office design also emphasizes the concept of "smart sustainability." In addition to its convenient transportation, the location connects with Google's existing offices in Banqiao (TPKC) and Xindian, further expanding Google's AI R&D corridor layout in the Greater Taipei area.
Focusing on TPU, heat dissipation, and computing performance, more than 10 professional laboratories have been established.
Google emphasizes that Taiwan has long been one of Google's largest R&D bases in Asia, and has now become Google's global AI innovation center. As the AI wave sweeps the globe, the demand for cloud computing and data center hardware is growing exponentially.
The newly opened "AI Infrastructure R&D Center" allows hundreds of cross-disciplinary technical personnel to collaborate. The center also houses more than 10 specialized laboratories, where the team will focus on the three core areas of Google's AI infrastructure:
• Data center heat dissipation and energy efficiency
• System computing performance optimization
• Server-related computing design including CPU, GPU, TPU, network, software, rack, storage, etc.
This directly reflects Taiwan's strong capabilities in semiconductors, server manufacturing, and hardware engineering, allowing Taiwanese teams to directly participate in the underlying construction of Google's global AI computing power.
Meanwhile, Greg Moore, General Manager of Google's Infrastructure R&D, also pointed out that the AI Infrastructure R&D Center established in Taiwan will participate in related design and development from the early stages, and will not only be responsible for later adjustments, but will also include maintenance after application deployment.
However, Greg Moore further explained that the Taiwan team was mainly responsible for integrating the components required for the computing of many infrastructure projects, but they also collaborated with the US team on the early design.
Advantages of proximity to the supply chain: Project cycles shortened by 40%, allowing employees to "eat dinner at home".
During the event, Google executives specifically pointed out that a major advantage of the Taiwan team lies in its "proximity" to the local supply chain. The new office's spatial design also makes it easier for partners and supply chain vendors to collaborate technically with Google. Through close collaboration with Taiwanese hardware partners, Google has been able to significantly shorten product development and project cycles by 40%.
This highly efficient operating model not only accelerates the iteration speed of AI infrastructure, but Google also emphasizes more emotionally that it enables team members to complete their work in a more efficient way, realizing the vision of "being able to go home for dinner in the evening" in terms of work-life balance, rather than wasting time on time differences in cross-border communication or long waiting times for hardware prototyping.
Having cultivated 10 AI talents and funded academic research in Taiwan for over a decade, the company has a long history of working in the region.
Looking back at Google's development in Taiwan, from setting up its first data center in Asia in the Changhua Changbin Industrial Park in 2013, to continuously investing in multiple submarine cables and fulfilling its sustainability commitments, to now opening the Shihlin R&D Center, it shows Google's determination to continue expanding its investment in Taiwan.
Beyond hardware development, Google also invests heavily in talent. Through initiatives like "Lighting Up Gemini," Google has cultivated over 10 professionals in Taiwan. Furthermore, since 2018, Google has been hosting academic forums and funding new research, including collaborations with top Taiwanese universities on AI infrastructure projects, aiming to strengthen Taiwan's AI R&D capabilities through education and academia.
