This Nvidia-Backed AI Startup Is Helping Chip Giants Save Time And Money

Taipei-based MetAI Technology is enabling chipmakers like TSMC to avoid costly construction mistakes with its digital twin technology that can create virtual, detailed copies of fabs within minutes. Cofounder and CEO Daniel Yu is targeting builders of AI data centers next.

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took the stage at the Computex technology expo in Taipei in May 2025, he hammered home that the age of industrial AI has arrived with AI-trained robots working the floors of high-tech factories. With trillions of dollars pouring into these complex plants, the stakes are high to ensure they are built well, cost effectively and on time. What makes that possible, he said, are their next-gen digital twins that allow companies to virtually model production processes before construction begins—and in a video showcasing the technology, a little-known Taiwanese startup was singled out by name.

It was a big moment for Daniel Yu, cofounder and CEO of MetAI Technology, who was in the audience listening keenly to Huang’s keynote address. “But public recognition is one thing,” says Yu, 36, in a video interview from his home in Taipei. “Commercial execution is another. It was a mix of excitement and a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do.”

His four-year-old company has so far landed clients such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and U.S.-based Micron Technology, and also earned it a spot on Forbes Asia’s 100 To Watch list in 2025. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker by market share, for example, is using MetAI’s software to generate customized digital twins of utility and piping systems for its new fabs being built in Taiwan and the U.S.

Digital twins are particularly valuable for semiconductor fabs and data centers “because they are highly instrumented environments, where the cost of downtime, inefficiency or design changes can be significant.”