TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's exports rose more than expected in January thanks both to artificial intelligence demand and companies getting in orders before Donald Trump assumed office as U.S. president and began levying trade tariffs.

Exports rose 4.4% from the same month a year ago to $38.71 billion, the finance ministry said on Friday, beating a forecast of 3.5% in a Reuters poll. The increase, lower than December's gain of 9.2%, marked the 15th straight monthly rise.

Taiwan firms such as TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, are major suppliers to Apple, Nvidia and other tech companies.

Ministry official Beatrice Tsai told reporters exports last month did better than expected because of AI, and because companies were getting in orders before Trump took office on Jan. 20. Trump has since imposed tariffs on China - Taiwan's largest trading partner - though paused them on Canada and Mexico.

Excluding the last week of January, when Taiwan was on holiday for the Lunar New Year break, exports rose a third compared with the same period a year ago, a surge Tsai said was very rarely seen.

While the ministry said in an accompanying statement that tariffs and other geopolitical risks present a fair amount of uncertainty for this year, Tsai said for this year officials remained generally positive about export momentum.

For February, the ministry expects exports to rise between 16% and 20% on year.

In January, Taiwan's exports to the United States rose 0.7% year-on-year to $8.46 billion, versus a 16% gain in the prior month.

Exports to China, Taiwan's biggest trading partner, contracted 11.7%, versus a jump of 3.6% in December.

Taiwan's total exports of electronic components climbed 3.1% in January on the year to $14.0 billion, with semiconductor exports up 4.2%.

Imports shed 17.2% to $28.74 billion, worse than economists' forecasts for a gain of 0.7%.