RPT-Taiwan's science ministry warns spending cuts could hit chips, AI funding

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By Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Taiwan’s science ministry warned on Friday that funding for areas such as semiconductors, AI and aerospace could be reduced by T$20 billion ($609.11 million) for next year after opposition parties passed laws requiring cuts to economic and technology spending.

Taiwan’s opposition parties, which hold a majority in parliament, passed legislation last week to redirect spending from the central government to local municipalities, a move strongly opposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and thousands of protesters.

Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology estimate comes after the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Tuesday warned that the country's collaboration with tech companies, such as Micron MU.O, AMD AMD.O and Nvidia NVDA.O, could be affected and that insufficient future budgets would affect Taiwan’s international AI technology partnerships.

The economic ministry’s spending for next year is projected to be reduced by T$29.7 billion, with T$11.6 billion earmarked for cuts to technology projects, according to its calculations.

Micron has been Taiwan’s biggest foreign direct investor. Micron, AMD and Nvidia applied for technology collaboration projects with the Taiwan government, with partial government funding support.

($1 = 32.8350 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee, Editing by Louise Heavens)

((wen-yee.lee@thomsonreuters.com))