Advanced Semiconductor Engin-eering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world's biggest chip packager, yesterday signed an agreement with NXP Semiconductors to form a joint venture in Suzhou, China, to safeguard its position as market leader.
This is a further step by ASE in its efforts to build a greater presence in China's burgeoning semiconductor market following its acquisition of Shanghai-based chip testing and packaging firm Global Advanced Packaging Technology Ltd (
The new joint venture, 60 percent owned by ASE, is expected to start operations in the second quarter after first receiving the go-ahead from the Taiwanese government, according to a joint statement.
NXP, headquartered in the Netherlands, would hold 40 percent of the new company, the statement said, without disclosing detailed financial information. NXP was previously known as Philips Semiconductor, the chip unit of Royal Philips Electronics NV.
"We look forward to working together with NXP to strengthen our leadership position and bring additional value to our customers," ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) said in the statement.
The joint venture with NXP would serve the international and domestic Chinese markets, focusing on testing and packaging of a wide range of semiconductors in areas such as mobile communications, consumer electronics and automotive products, the statement said.
"The deal will help ASE increase orders in the long run by establishing stronger alliances with customers such as NXP," said Tiffany Chen (
ASE has been attempting to enhance its operational efficiency by improving its customer portfolio and boosting the sales contribution from its 10 major clients, including Freescale Semiconductor Inc and Microsoft Corp.
The cooperation with NXP would also provide ASE with easier access to China's semiconductor market, Chen said.
ASE's rival, Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), said on Thursday that it also expected to gain the government's approval to set up an operation in China in the first half of this year.
Separately, the US private equity fund consortium Carlyle Group is waiting for government approval of its buyout bid for ASE.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday that it would start reviewing the proposed deal after completing consultations with the relevant government agencies. It said the ministry's Investment Commission is still soliciting opinions on the deal.
On Wednesday, the private US-Taiwan Business Council called on the ministry to swiftly complete the review process for Carlyle's proposed buy-out.
The Washington-based business association said in a statement that this potential deal highlights the ability of Taiwanese companies to attract substantial foreign investments.
ASE shares inched up 0.26 percent to NT$37.45 yesterday, underperforming the primary TAIEX index's 0.98 percent gain. The share price of SPIL dropped 0.91 percent to NT$54.40.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts