Another U.S. Tech Company Is Expanding In Talent-Rich Taiwan - Forbes

Another U.S. Tech Company Is Expanding In Talent-Rich Taiwan - Forbes

A Corning representative demonstrates the use of Gorilla Glass in the Corning connected concept car ... [+] at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Photo by Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

A Who’s Who of American tech companies have expanded R&D and production in Taiwan over the past few years. Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, to name a few recognized names, like the industrialized East Asian island for its abundance of relatively affordable, highly educated IT talent.

Now Corning, the New York-based company best known for making glass screens for iPhones and other smartphones, is bulking up its presence in Taiwan. Local subsidiary Corning Display Technologies Taiwan began working last month with National Taiwan University’s Taidah Entrepreneurship Center to accelerate local startups, reported DigiTimes. The startups will in turn find uses for Corning materials and technologies.

“We believe Taiwan’s startups have strong capabilities in innovation,” says Sarah Pakyala, marketing communications manager at Corning. The university’s entrepreneurship center “serves as a great platform for enterprises like Corning to explore new business applications through startup companies’ open innovation,” she notes. “We see this as a win-win collaboration for both companies.”

Corning, the 169-year-old American inventor of synthetic glass ceramics, came to Taiwan in 1971 as the LCD industry was growing. The Taiwan arm allowed Corning to deliver LCD glass to panel makers on the island that were making all sorts of tech hardware to export worldwide.

Pakyala says Corning hopes Taiwan’s startups can find new ways to use Gorilla Glass, a trade name for the scratch-resistant glass on most smartphones. Possible uses for the glass include medical devices and automotive displays, according to the DigiTimes report. Corning announced earlier this month that it would industrialize its Corning ColdForm Technology for curved automotive display systems, a boost to in-car infotainment.

The company is also looking for Taiwanese startups that can find ways of using a Corning air purification system to help cut smog, Pakyala says. That might mean coming up with projects for “large-scale” indoor or outdoor air purification, according DigiTimes. “We look forward to continuing leveraging Taiwan’s innovation capabilities for more new business opportunities,” Pakyala says.

The university-based innovation center started accepting applications from startups that could help Corning, says Vincent Tseng, the center’s chief executive officer. The 6-year-old agency backed by Taiwan’s top-rated school has paired startups before with a local bank, a telecommunication firm, display panel developer AU Optronics and five other companies, Tseng says.

It expects to select five startups for the Corning projects, he says. The startups will be chosen partly based on how well they can work within the departments of Corning and whether they share the U.S. company’s overall business development direction, Tseng says. Corning will pay an undisclosed management fee to the innovation center.

Those selected will get startup “acceleration” service such as classes and mentoring, as well as the potential to tap into National Taiwan University’s resources, he adds. The startups will be reviewed after six months and the acceleration will last a year.

Thousands of startups operate in Taiwan, including at least 460 that specialize in tech—the island’s economic foundation over the past 50 years.

Corning will probably find what it’s looking for through the university scheme, says Lin Ta-han, CEO of Taipei-based crowdfunding consultancy Backer-Founder. “I think Taiwan does have its advantages,” Lin says. “One is talent—the education level is high—and the level of consumers’ curiosity toward new stuff is also high.”

2020-01-22 04:10:02Z
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2020/01/21/another-us-tech-company-is-expanding-in-talent-rich-taiwan/

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