Mexico is quietly becoming a big player in the global AI economy, even surpassing Taiwan as the No. 1 supplier of U.S. AI server imports in the second quarter.

A report by the Economic Studies Department of Grupo Financiero Banamex found that Mexico’s share of U.S. server imports through the first half of 2026 was 34.5%, just behind Taiwan’s 36%. 

Mexico and Taiwan have captured the U.S. market for artificial intelligence data center servers, which had previously been dominated by China. In 2017, China accounted for 60.4% of U.S. purchases of computer equipment, while in the first half of 2026 its share fell to 2%, with all that space being taken over by Taiwan and Mexico.

Taiwanese exports of artificial intelligence servers to the United States grew from US $2.8 billion in 2017 to US $72.2 billion in the first half of 2026. 

During the first half of the year, Mexico exported more than US $60.4 billion worth of computer servers to artificial intelligence data centers in the United States, first surpassing Taiwan in May sales.

In the second quarter, Mexico was supplying nearly 40% of U.S. server imports — selling more components and servers for artificial intelligence data centers than Taiwan — benefiting by having become an assembly plant for Taiwanese computer equipment manufacturers. 

“Mexico has established itself as an assembly platform close to the U.S. market, while design, technological integration and chain coordination activities (for artificial intelligence computing production) remain concentrated in Asia,” Banamex said.

Banamex described the relationship as a regional reorganization led by Taiwanese manufacturers such as Inventec, Wistron and Flex. Earlier this month, Inventec announced plans to invest US $450 million in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

Furthermore, Taiwanese multinational Foxconn — the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer — announced in April that it is building one of the world’s largest AI server factories near Guadalajara.  

“The recent server boom represents a deepening of Mexico’s manufacturing integration, rather than a displacement of Taiwanese industrial leadership,” Banamex noted.

The recent surge in Mexican exports of servers for artificial intelligence is being interpreted as evidence of Mexico’s success in the most dynamic technology sectors globally.

The shift also creates new exposure to tariffs, while requiring trade-policy changes to address component sourcing and delivery disruptions across the Taiwan-Mexico-U.S. supply chain. The AI boom is reshaping Mexico’s economy, as data servers are going head-to-head with automobiles as the No. 1 export to the U.S. 

With reports from Forbes México, AI Weekly, Channel Insider and Deutsche Welle