The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced yesterday that it had approved applications to invest in China from Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體).
"The approval of the investments in China will not impact on Taiwan's economy," Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (
Powerchip and ProMOS plan to invest NT$12 billion (US$368.1 million) and US$365 million, respectively, in setting 8-inch semiconductor plants using 0.25-micro process technology in China, Chen said.
The government agreed in principle to allow local chipmakers to build a total of three 8-inch wafer plants using 0.25-micron process technology in China by the end of last year, but before yesterday only Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
Powerchip has two 12-inch fabs in Taiwan with a combined monthly output capacity of 85,000 wafers, while ProMOS has two 12-inch plants in Taiwan churning out 70,000 wafers per month.
ProMOS plans to open its Chinese plant in Chongqing, which is expected to start test production in early 2008, Chen said. Powerchip has not decided on the location of its plant yet.
While it was moving some operations to China, Powerchip also committed to invest NT$870 billion in Taiwan in the next five years, Chen said.
Besides the NT$450 billion investment with Japan's Elpida Memory Inc announced on Dec. 7, the company is building three 12-inch wafer plants for NT$220 billion, and plans to construct another 12-inch plant for NT$200 billion, Chen said.
The ASE's application to acquire Chinese chip testing and packaging company Global Advanced Packaging Technology Ltd (
The Chinese investment will not impact on local industry, as the Chinese unit will only generate 5 percent of ASE's total revenues after it starts mass production, Chen said.
The three companies still need to file applications and investment plans to the ministry's Investment Commission in accordance with the new China-bound investment regulations announced last Thursday.
The investments could be officially passed as easrly as next week if the three companies file their applications immediately, Chen said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day