Taiwan plays a uniquely strategic role in Google's global operations and its expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to Chris Verne, a longtime Google executive who delivered a keynote at the OCP APAC Summit in Taipei on the morning of August 5, 2025.
Verne, whose 30-year career spanned roles at IBM, Lenovo, and Google, described Taiwan as one of the company's most critical hubs outside the United States. "Fifteen of the last nine years of my life have been in Taiwan, leading engineering teams," he said. "It's a place that fosters openness, deep collaboration, and real execution."
Taiwan's AI relevance rooted in infrastructure and talent
Verne emphasized that Taiwan is home to a "unique combination of capabilities" essential to Google's global technology stack—from silicon development to full system integration.
"Many of the partners that Google is working with are in Taiwan," he noted, adding that the island offers "deep engineering supply chain expertise built over decades" and "key system design and manufacturing partners" responsible for equipment deployed in Google's global data centers.
Google's long-term investment in Taiwan includes its data center and cloud region launched over a decade ago, as well as sustained commitments in core engineering, manufacturing, sustainability, and workforce development. Verne highlighted the recent celebration of the 10th anniversary of Google's data center in Changhua, reaffirming the company's ongoing presence on the island.
Credit: Joseph Chen
Efficiency through proximity and ecosystem maturity
Verne pointed to Taiwan's concentration of expertise in a relatively compact geography as a major advantage. "The proximity of capabilities in a small space gives us tremendous efficiency in decision-making and execution," he said. "The Taiwan ecosystem is uniquely positioned for leadership in data center technology—both at the chip level and the system level."
He also underscored the island's role in enabling secure and scalable AI infrastructure. "Significant contributions from our partners in Asia, particularly Taiwan, are essential to building more secure, resilient, and trustworthy infrastructure for the age of AI," Verne said.
Long-standing partnership, personal connection
Verne's remarks reflected not just a corporate perspective but also a personal affinity for Taiwan. "When I'm not building data center technologies," he said, "you can probably find me cycling around Taiwan."
His keynote reinforced Google's view of Taiwan as not only a critical node in its AI infrastructure strategy, but also as a long-term partner capable of adapting to—and enabling the next phase of global computing.
Credit: Joseph Chen
Article edited by Jerry Chen
