Taiwan’s Role in the Global AI Landscape
Title: The End of the Software Assembly Line: From "Silicon Shield" to "AI Brain"
Subtitle: Re-Architecting the Asian Tech Ecosystem in the Age of Agentic AI
Each year, our series “Entrepreneurship in Asian High-Tech Industries” surveys the most recent trends, patterns, and challenges of entrepreneurship in Asia and their relevance to Silicon Valley and the U.S. This week, Sega Cheng, 2026 Eisenhower Fellow and Co-Founder/Chairman of iKala, shares his journey from Google engineer to AI founder, insights on scaling AI solutions across Asia, and his vision for Taiwan’s role in the global AI landscape.
From defying Taiwan's hardware gravity to partnering with manufacturing giants, Sega has lived the transformation from "Silicon Shield" to "AI Brain." He shares battle-tested insights on collapsing software costs, restructuring organizations for human-AI collaboration, and exporting integrated AI solutions globally—all while preserving cultural sovereignty.
As an Eisenhower Fellow, Sega represents Taiwan's technology sector in high-level dialogues with global political and economic leaders in the U.S. His objective is to forge stronger, multi-layered ties between Taiwan and the U.S. across government, industry, and academia, elevating Taiwan from a hardware manufacturing powerhouse to a strategic nexus for global AI transformation.
Dr. Richard Dasher, Director of Stanford's US-Asia Technology Management Center, will serve as moderator.
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Guest speaker Sega Cheng, Co-Founder & Chairman, iKala
Sega Cheng was born in Taipei, Taiwan, to a family of entrepreneurs spanning three generations. His maternal grandfather, Lin Zhong-Li, was the founder of the SPIL Group. His father, Mr. Cheng Wen-Lung, retired as a senior vice president from CTBC Group and later became an angel investor and co-founder of several tech groups.
Sega holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and has 20 years of AI research and practical experience. He formerly worked as a software engineer at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, where he was among the first engineers to integrate AI into Google’s search engine and helped build the popular Google Transit product. Before leaving Google, he managed the multimedia framework of the Android operating system and became the first engineering speaker from Taiwan at the global Google I/O Developers Conference.
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This program is hosted by Stanford's US-Asia Technology Management Center. It is part of our spring seminar series on "Entrepreneurship in Asian High Tech Industries". Check-out our speaker line-up here!
Registration:
To attend in-person, please register on Luma.
To attend by Zoom, go here: https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/IXK1zLrXR-ODOShC3cwcJQ#/registration
Agenda:
4:30 pm – 5:50 pm Discussion and Audience Q&A
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Networking Reception
Venue:
Stanford University, Bishop Auditorium, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
Parking options:
Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
Lasuen St. and Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
Please check parking signs carefully to ensure that permitted parking (A or C) and metered spaces are free after 4:00 pm. Paid parking is enforced around The Oval until 6:00 pm.