Following the step of Microsoft and Amazon, Google recently announced its plan to kick start "Smart Taiwan" initiative leveraging the concept of Google Global AI-First to help Taiwan enhance the competitiveness and move toward a digital future, the United Daily News reported on March 21. The initiative will comprise of three parts: talent recruitment, datacenter expansion, and AI ecosystem building. Within this year, Google will hire over 300 new employees, and train over 5,000 AI experts and 50,000 marketing talents in Taiwan. In addition, Google’s information resource center in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park has completed the phase 3 expansion and will start the phase 4 this year. For AI ecosystem building, Google is poised to partner with Taiwan's government organizations, professional training colleges, and businesses to implement this new initiative. Google also acknowledged that after seven years of devotion, Google Taiwan has been its largest research base in Asia, in addition to its long-term partnership with HTC in the development of the Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones.