United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) will apply to acquire a controlling stake in Chinese wafer foundry He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co (和艦), a UMC executive said yesterday.
The executive made the announcement after Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said the government was considering to allow local foundries to invest in China via direct investment, acquisition or mergers.
The announcement received a positive reaction from UMC, but many chipmakers, including Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), Advanced Microelectronic Products Inc (元隆電子) and Episil Technology Inc (漢磊科技) said they had no plans to invest in China.
UMC, the world’s second-largest contract chipmaker, said in April that its board of directors had voted to pay US$285 million to acquire 85 percent of He Jian, a semiconductor foundry business established by former UMC employees in Suzhou, China, in late 2001. He Jian operates an 8-inch fab with a monthly capacity of 41,000 wafers.
Taiwan’s investment regulations stipulate that only three chip plants can be built by Taiwanese chipmakers in China using older technology, such as 8-inch wafers. According to this regulations, Taiwan has already reached its maximum.
The three Taiwan wafer fabs in China include one each by ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The third fab has not actually been built, but belongs to Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), which filed an application a few years ago.
The semiconductor industry has always been a strategically developed industry in Taiwan, and TSMC and UMC were once known as the two heads of wafer production. However, TSMC’s revenue has far exceeded that of UMC in recent years, so UMC is attempting to venture into the vast Chinese market in hopes of maintaining competitiveness, market observers said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”