Microsoft announced that it will establish a new AI R&D center in Taiwan for NT$1 billion (US$34.4 million; US$ = NT$29.1) in the first two years, according to Central News Agency on January 10. According to the plan, Microsoft will recruit and train more than 200 researchers and developers in the next five years with an aim to help Taiwan foster an AI industry. The reasons Microsoft chose Taiwan is because the nation's mature education system especially in cultivating mathematics, engineering, and science talent, well-established IT infrastructure, and the long-term pioneering position in the global IT manufacturing industry, as well as the government's strong commitment to prompt AI. The center is also to develop industry-specific applications, focusing mainly on AI-augmented keyboard application SwiftKey with Chinese language input, user-intent recognition technology, and some of Microsoft's AI technology, to be shared with Taiwanese companies who are interested in applying AI to their businesses.