Atlas of AI Buildout

Basis divergence · Systems & Facility

Your American data centre was built in Taiwan

Taiwan's AI server makers: Foxconn, Quanta, Wistron

#1 vs #25Taiwan: ownership vs physical, Systems · grade B, Derived

Almost every AI rack in an American data hall was integrated by a Taiwanese company. Foxconn, Quanta, Wistron, Pegatron and Inventec build the systems; Hon Hai alone reported NT$8.103tn, about $259bn, in 2025. Taiwan ranks #1 on Systems ownership on that revenue.

On the physical basis, which asks where capacity actually sits, Taiwan ranks #25. The assembly happens in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Texas and Malaysia. The buildings are American. The profit is Taiwanese. The workforce is somewhere else again.

Any single-map answer to "who is building AI" has quietly picked one of those three questions and hidden the choice. That is the entire reason this atlas has a toggle instead of a headline — switch Attribution at the top and watch the ranking reorder.

Source — Company filings, Annual reports, 20-F and 10-K filings (2026)
Revenue taken from audited annual results where the company reports a single consolidated figure. FY2025 anchors used here: TSMC $122.4bn; Nvidia $130.5bn (FY2025); Broadcom $63.9bn; Samsung Electronics KRW 333.6tn; SK hynix KRW 97.15tn; ASML EUR 32.7bn; Hon Hai NT$8.103tn; GE Vernova $38.1bn; Vertiv $10.23bn. Segment boundaries still differ between issuers, so sub-layer splits remain derived.

Explore this in the interactive atlas →

The thinking behind the atlas is written up in Cheap thought has a physical address on Substack.

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