Taiwan Exports Up 61 percent

[ABS News Service/09.10.2026]

· Taiwan's exports hit a record high of $87.2 billion in September, the government said Thursday, thanks to skyrocketing global demand for artificial intelligence hardware.

The island is a powerhouse in the semiconductor sector, producing more than 90 percent of the world's most advanced chips used to train and power AI systems. The 60.9 percent year-on-year increase in exports was the 35th straight month of growth, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Imports for September soared 51.7 percent to $63.6 billion and the trade surplus reached $23.6 billion -- both also record highs, the ministry said. Surging exports this year have fuelled the island's blistering economic growth, with gross domestic product expanding 12.9 percent in the second quarter.

Taiwan is home to hardware production giants TSMC, which turns Nvidia's cutting-edge designs into silicon components, and Foxconn, which assembles the processors to make data centre servers.

The United States remained Taiwan's biggest export market in September, with overseas shipments more than doubling to $27.5 billion, the second highest value on record. Exports to the Southeast Asian regional bloc ASEAN hit a record $18.9 billion, up 93.4 percent.