Past event · Convened by GTA Semiconductor · TLA Taiwan co-host
From Silicon to Sovereign AI
What Europe can learn from the US–Taiwan technology partnership, and which part of the AI stack the UK could hold that the rest of the world cannot do without. Convened by the GTA Semiconductor Working Group, with TLA Taiwan supporting as co-host.
A narrower question than the usual one
The evening was convened by Josh Liu, lead and founder of the GTA Semiconductor Working Group, who spotted that a keynote worth hearing was passing through London and built a room around it. TLA Taiwan was glad to support it as co-host.
Taiwanese industry has committed around USD 250 billion of investment into the United States, and Taiwan’s government has matched it. The EU Chips Act put up less than fifty. The UK and Europe have said they intend to be the third player after the US and Taiwan, and the distance between those figures is the measure of what that would take.
So the evening asked something more useful than how the UK builds its own AI stack: which part of that stack the rest of the world could not do without. Every government wants a fab, the keynote noted, “but it’s not like just opening a bubble tea shop.”
Three views on where sovereignty actually sits
Jason Hsu
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute · former Member, Legislative Yuan
Keynote. Took the term “sovereign AI” apart and replaced it with a harder question: not what a country owns, but which layer of the stack the rest of the world cannot do without.
Dr Andy G Sellars
Strategy Director, CORNERSTONE · Founder, Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult
What the UK actually has: research base, materials, compound semiconductors, roughly 160 chip design companies. And the long-standing failure to turn any of it into scale.
Dr Shyam Krishna
Research Leader, RAND Europe
Why interdependence is not dependency, and why sovereignty is better read as readiness for whatever comes next than as independence from anyone.
What the room landed on
No country holds the whole stack
Self-sufficiency is autarky and nobody has achieved it. The workable goal is trusted interdependence: holding a layer others need, so dependence runs both ways.
Concentration is an exposure, not just an asset
The silicon shield is an oversimplification. Taiwan’s own answers are diversification, redundancy, and shared rather than solely owned capacity.
The UK’s opening is the edge, not the frontier
Inference on-device, small constrained models inside an enterprise boundary, and photonics scaled with a partner rather than against one.
Read the full event report
“Not Like Opening a Bubble Tea Shop: Semiconductors, Sovereignty and Where the UK Fits”. The keynote, the fireside and the floor, written up in full.
Read the editorialGallery
Convened and organised by Josh Liu, lead and founder of the GTA Semiconductor Working Group, which unites corporates, investors, policymakers and innovators to advance the semiconductor industry globally. The Tech London Advocates Taiwan Working Group was glad to support the evening as co-host. With thanks to Josh Liu and the volunteers who put it together, and to Vorboss for the venue.
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