Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., currently Taiwan’s No.1 telecom carrier, recently signed an agreement to open a US$100 million joint venture with visual-effects company Rhythm & Hues Studios Inc. (R&H) of the United States to provide global visual-effects market with cloud computing services.
The two companies will build the joint venture on a cloud computing data center they are jointly operating in Taipei. The two companies have invested in hundred of millions of New Taiwan dollar on what they call “cloud for animation and visual effects (CAVE)” with the data center, which helped produce visual effects for Hollywood film “Life of Pi”.
The joint venture will introduce R&H’s visual-effects technology and integrate it with Taiwan’s well developed information-communication industry.
According to studies released by the non-profit Institute for Information Industry (III) of Taiwan, the visual-effects industry produced an estimated US$46-81 billion in revenue worldwide in 2011, including US$18-40 billion contributed by the animation sector and US$5-11 billion by the film-making sector.
According to Minster without Portfolio S.J. Chang, the joint venture will help upgrade Taiwan’s animation and film-making industries in international market.