TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's export orders exceeded expectations in August as demand for chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications continued to climb, with the government seeing the strong momentum extending to the rest of the year.

Export orders last month rose 9.1% to $50.22 billion from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday. That beat the 8.35% gain forecast in a Reuters poll and topped July's 4.8% expansion.

Orders for goods from Taiwan, home to tech giants such as chip manufacturer TSMC, are a bellwether of global technology demand.

The orders growth was thanks to "continued demand for AI, high-computing and cloud industries, as well as preparation of new consumer electronics products," the ministry said in a statement.

Looking ahead, the ministry expects export orders momentum to sustain as new applications such as AI and high-speed computing keep rolling out and consumer electronics products enter the traditional hot season in the second half of the year, the statement added.

The ministry said it expects export orders in September will increase between 4.7% and 8.6% year-on-year.

Taiwan's orders in August for telecommunication products were up 16% from the prior year, while electronic products rose 13.2% from a year earlier.

Overall orders from China edged up 2.6% versus a 0.1% fall in the prior month. Orders from the United States advanced 11.2%, versus a 14.3% gain in July.

Orders from Europe rose 8.3% in August after climbing 6.1% in July.

From Japan, orders were up 2.1% last month, versus a rise of 2.4% in July.

(Reporting by Faith Hung and Jeanny Kao; editing by Jason Neely and Andrew Heavens)