每日跟讀#502: Explosive growth in AI opening for Taiwan’s tech sector

While there is already a consensus in the market that the global economy is slowing down and companies are finding it harder to turn a profit, the tech industry continues to grow off the back of new technological innovations. In 2015, US technology powerhouse NVIDIA took the lead in making 2015 the year of artificial intelligence, and the current mainstream view in the global high tech industry is that we are about to face an onslaught of AI. No analysis of which tech stocks to invest in this year will be complete without a focus on AI companies.

全球經濟與企業獲利成長力道放緩，已是市場共識。但科技產業持續朝新技術發展，二○一五年美國科技大廠NVIDIA帶頭開啟AI（人工智慧）元年，人工智慧浪潮來襲，目前已是全球科技業的顯學，明年科技股投資焦點，絕對少不了人工智慧。

The beginnings of AI development can be traced back to 1950, although adoption in the early stages was slow. Despite the sluggish start, the popularization of graphics processing units coupled with a parallel increase in computing speed and larger cloud storage capacity has today created an increasing number of applications for AI technology. Focusing on Taiwan, there are no “pure” AI stocks comparable to NVIDIA, but AI requires a huge supporting framework behind the scenes, and Taiwan’s high tech industry will provide much of the infrastructure and equipment needed to make AI a reality.

人工智慧早在一九五十年就開始發展，但遲遲無法真的落實。隨著繪圖處理器開始普及，加速平行運算速度，雲端儲存空間放大，AI應用越來越發達。就台股來看，並沒有像NVIDIA純度那麼高的人工智慧相關個股，但人工智慧背後需要龐大的架構，要有許多基礎建設與相關配備才能實現，台灣科技業多參與其中。

First and foremost, AI requires a massive amount of big data to be processed in the cloud. The large variety of calculations requires cloud computing, but also data centers, high-performance computing chips, application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and audio recognition technology to name just a few of the specialist areas. All of this basic infrastructure needs to be in place in order for AI end products like popular smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo, Apple’s HomePod or Xiaomi’s Mi AI Speaker to function. In the near future, a raft of other products will enter the market, providing a diverse array of products preloaded with AI technology.

人工智慧首先要有雲端處理龐大數據，進行各種演算，需要雲端、資料中心、高速運算（HPC）晶片、客製化晶片（ASIC）、聲學、音學辨識技術等，在相關基礎建設完備後，AI終端產品應運而生，像是近來熱門的智慧音箱亞馬遜Echo、蘋果HomePod、小米小愛同學就是代表，未來還會有更多AI智慧產品，呈現百花齊放的局面。

Chip designer Global Unichip Corp is bullish toward the AI market, which it projects will increase by approximately 50 percent year-on-year between the next 3-5 years. Thirty percent of this growth is expected to come from ASIC. Global Unichip Corp also says it believes AI will be the driving force behind revenue growth for the company in the years to come.

創意電子看好人工智慧市場未來三至五年約有百分之五十年複合成長率，其中百分之三十的成長率將來自ASIC，人工智慧將是創意未來營運成長一大主力。

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/01/01/2003707116

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