Eseandre Mordi
⬤ Taiwan's trade surplus reached an all-time high in 2025, reflecting the explosive demand for artificial intelligence hardware worldwide. The country's rolling 12-month trade surplus climbed from $51 billion in 2022 to $144 billion in the twelve months ending November 2025. The sharp uptick started in 2023, right when U.S. imports of advanced semiconductors for AI workloads began taking off.
⬤ What's driving this surge? Almost entirely AI chips. Taiwan's trade surplus in data processing units alone jumped from $12 billion to $150 billion over the same period. While integrated circuits still make up a significant chunk of exports, it's the AI-specific hardware that's clearly fueling the recent explosion in growth.
⬤ The United States is absorbing most of these exports. Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. shot up from $29 billion in 2022 to $138 billion by late 2025. U.S. imports of Taiwan-made AI chips surged from $6.8 billion in 2022 to $110 billion in the twelve months ending November 2025. These AI-related shipments now account for roughly 59% of Taiwan's total exports to the U.S., showing just how concentrated the trade flow has become.
⬤ Because it shows how the global AI build-out is fundamentally reshaping international trade. Taiwan's economy is now tightly linked to U.S. tech investment cycles and semiconductor policy decisions. As AI infrastructure spending continues to grow, Taiwan's position in advanced chip manufacturing becomes even more critical to global supply chains—making the country more vulnerable to any shifts in AI demand or geopolitical trade tensions.
Eseandre Mordi
