(Change company identifiers in the first two paragraphs)
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te thanked Micron’s chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra on Friday for his trust and continued investment in the island, in a rare public meeting with a top foreign technology executive.
It is highly unusual for Taiwan’s president to publicize his meetings with top foreign tech executives even though the island is home to the world’s largest chipmaker, TSMC, whose chips help power a surge in artificial intelligence applications.
Lai thanked Mehrotra for “showing trust and support for Taiwan” in a video released by the president’s office.
“I would like to thank Micron for its long-term investment in Taiwan and continuing to promote the upgrade of DRAM processing technology in Taiwan,” he added, referring to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
Micron is one of the few companies that provides high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in advanced AI systems.
Lai said Taiwan hopes Micron will continue to expand its R&D capabilities, and the government will work to create a “friendly living environment” for foreign talent to meet the needs of companies.
“It is an honor to meet you today,” Mehrotra told Lai.
Micron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lai’s meeting with Mehrotra was not announced in advance in the president’s official agenda sent to journalists.
Lai, who took office in May, has faced continued pressure from China, which views democratically-ruled Taiwan as a “secessionist” province. Lai rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty over Taiwan and has repeatedly offered talks, which China has rejected.