Supercomputing in Taiwan

Supercomputing in Taiwan has a history going back to the 1990s, with the establishment of the National Center for High-Performance Computing in 1993 by the Government of Taiwan. In November 2018 the National Center for High-Performance Computing owned supercomputer Taiwania 2 debuted at number 20 on the TOP500 list of fastest supercomputers. As of November 2025[update], the NCHC NANO 4 supercomputer is the fastest supercomputer in Taiwan, having been ranked 29th fastest in the world in the TOP500 supercomputer list.

The sector is primarily supported by government initiatives, academic institutions, and the technology industry, and plays a role in scientific research, industrial innovation, and the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Taiwan's supercomputing capabilities are closely linked to its strengths in the semiconductor industry and information and communications technology (ICT), and have expanded significantly since the 2010s with the growth of data-intensive computing and AI applications.

History

Early development of high-performance computing in Taiwan was driven by academic and scientific research needs, particularly in fields such as physics, meteorology, and engineering. In 1993, the Taiwanese government established the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC). It is one of ten national-level research laboratories under National Institutes of Applied Research (NIAR), headquartered at Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan. It operates several of the nation's major supercomputers and provides computing resources to academia, government agencies, and industry. NCHC systems are integrated with cloud platforms such as the Taiwan Computing Cloud (TWCC), which provides distributed computing services and supports AI development, simulation, and data analysis.

In the early 2010s under the Ma Ying-jeou administration, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ineffective government budget allocation has slowed down the process of upgrading Taiwan's supercomputing infrastructure, causing Taiwan to have zero supercomputers in the TOP500 list in November 2015.

In November 2018, under the Tsai Ing-wen administration, Taiwan's supercomputing capability made a major comeback to the TOP500 list with the introduction of the Taiwania 2 supercomputer, ranking at No. 20. At the time, it was the highest ranking ever achieved by a Taiwan-made supercomputer.

In the 2020s, under the Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te administrations, government policies were strategically focused on transforming Taiwan into an "AI Island" and accelerating digital transformation by raising national computing power. The government is investing heavily in this sector, enforcing strict energy efficiency standards for data centers, and fostering sovereign research to build a complete AI ecosystem.

Major systems

TAIWANIA series

The Taiwania series of supercomputers represents a major component of Taiwan's HPC infrastructure.

• Taiwania 2 is a GPU-accelerated system designed for AI and deep learning applications. It consists of over 250 compute nodes with CPUs and GPUs, providing performance of up to approximately 9 petaflops (PFLOPS). The system emphasizes energy efficiency and supports a wide range of AI frameworks, including TensorFlow and PyTorch. In 2018, it was ranked number 20 in the TOP500 supercomputer list.
• Taiwania 3 is a CPU-based system focused on general-purpose computing. It features approximately 50,000 computing cores and is used in scientific research fields such as physics, chemistry, and atmospheric science.

These systems are accessible to researchers and industry users through application-based access, supporting both academic research and industrial innovation.

Forerunner 1

Forerunner 1 is a general-purpose HPC system comprising over 500 compute servers and tens of thousands of processing cores. It supports parallel computing applications across multiple scientific disciplines and includes both x86 and ARM-based architectures for heterogeneous computing research.

Nano series

The Nano series represents newer generations of AI-oriented supercomputers developed by NCHC.

• Nano 5 (also known as 晶創25) is an accelerator-based clustered system incorporating NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPUs. It achieved a performance of approximately 13 petaflops and debuted in the TOP500 supercomputer rankings in 2025. The system is designed to support AI model training and scientific simulations.
• NANO 4 (also known as 晶創26) is a large-scale AI supercomputer with a measured performance of approximately 81.55 petaflops. It incorporates NVIDIA H200-based architecture and GB200 NVL72 systems, combining general-purpose HPC with AI training capabilities. The system includes high-speed interconnects and large-scale storage infrastructure, and is used in research areas such as AI, telecommunications, and digital content.

These systems form part of national infrastructure programs aimed at strengthening computing capacity and supporting technological development.

Rankings

Current TOP500

As of November 2025[update], there are 10 systems in Taiwan in the TOP500 supercomputer list.

Taiwan's historical rank in TOP500

See also

• Artificial intelligence industry in Taiwan
• Semiconductor industry in Taiwan
• Economy of Taiwan
• High-performance computing
• Fifth generation computer
• History of supercomputing
• Personal supercomputer
• Supercomputer architecture
• Supercomputing in Europe
• Supercomputing in India
• Supercomputing in Pakistan
• Supercomputing in Japan