In 1956, IBM established its subsidiary in Taiwan with the approval of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The company was initially located at the International House of Taipei with merely 40 sqm. of office space and 4 employees. In 1967, the company was recognized as IBM Taiwan Corporation in accordance with the Statute for Investment by Foreign Nationals. In 2006, IBM Taiwan extended its offices in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and the size of employees has grown to 1,600 people.

In the 50 years since establishing itself in Taiwan, IBM has unswervingly committed to the concept of challenging itself, garnered countless awards, actively introduced resources from overseas, participated in the overall transformation and enhancement of Taiwanese industries, established numerous R&D centers, and has become the number one provider of technological assistance for industries and government.

Looking both at the past and towards the future, IBM Taiwan believes that "innovation" will be the primary driving force behind the country’s competitiveness, productivity, economic development and social progress. Consequently, in 2006, IBM Taiwan introduced its "Innovate to Win" corporate vision as well as four major objectives - "Global R&D Resource", "Service Oriented Architecture", "Infrastructure Value" and "Comprehensive Outsourcing Service" - which will help Taiwan’s industries to win with innovation in worldwide markets.

In September 2002, IBM Taiwan announced the establishment of a Bioinformatics R&D Center, the first such center in Taiwan and the first in IBM’s Asia Pacific region, bringing together talents from many different fields to complete 9the implementation of a biotechnology R&D information platform. This is not only a response to the government’s invitation to establish R&D centers in Taiwan, but is also in line with the government’s "Two Trillion, Twin Star" policy, which has helped position Taiwan as an international biotechnology hotspot.

IBM has chosen Taiwan for its new bioinformatics (a blend of IT and biology) service and R&D center because Taiwan has the talent and experience in both of these disciplines, and has the environment that IBM is looking for where bioinformatics can grow and be nurtured.

In 2004, IBM headquarters selected Taiwan as the location for the Asia Pacific region’s first x86 server development center, establishing the eServer xSeries Taiwan Development Center. In the future, global resources and the strength of local enterprises will be brought together through this center. The development and design of servers using Intel processors will affirm the strength of Taiwanese production and R&D capabilities.

In 2006, IBM Taiwan will go a step further in establishing ties with local corporate, government, open-source software groups, academics and others to promote patent quality, innovative thinking and research into various technologies.

In addition, IBM Taiwan will build an SOA Innovation Center to help Independent Software Vendors (ISV) utilize more open and innovative frameworks to quicken the pace of product globalization, and to firmly establish Taiwan as a cornerstone of the global software industry.