South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co could never take over Taiwan’s tech industries on its own, because of the electronics industry’s diverse nature, Acer Inc (宏碁) chairman and chief executive J.T. Wang (王振堂) said yesterday.
Wang made the remarks in response to a report published by local Chinese-language magazine Business Today on Wednesday, according to which Samsung’s management decided to launch a “kill Taiwan” project in a meeting held after the industry started recovering from the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
The report cited a Taiwanese former Samsung official.
The project aims to drive Taiwanese companies in the PC DRAM sector, LCD panel sector and contract chipmaking sector out of the market, the report said.
“It is impossible” for Samsung to put this project into effect, Wang said.
“The [technology] world is very diverse, consisting of various needs for different products, and different groups of consumers with various preferences,” Wang told reporters on the sidelines of a forum on corporate social responsibility held by Acer in Taipei yesterday.
“No individual company can handle it all,” Wang said. “It is impossible for Samsung to take over Taiwan’s industries.”
Wang added that he doubted the report was true in any case.
Over the past four years, Samsung has gradually forced Taiwanese PC DRAM makers to exit the market and took market share away from Taiwan’s LCD panel makers and mobile phone brand HTC Corp (宏達電), the report said.
HTC lost some market share several years ago because of a short supply of high-resolution displays. Suppliers preferred Samsung over HTC at a time when the supply of high-resolution AMOLED screens was very limited, according to the report.
It added that Samsung is now targeting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), which makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc.
“Samsung is a formidable competitor,” TSMC chairman and chief executive Morris Chang (張忠謀) told reporters. “We will be well-prepared for it.”
Samsung was on his radar several years ago when the South Korean company expanded into the contract chipmaking business.
Samsung is the world’s biggest maker of memory chips and TVs, and is expected to overtake Nokia as the world’s top handset maker this year.
“I’m very optimistic about the company’s [TSMC’s] operations in the short term, medium term and long term,” Chang said.
Continued capacity expansion and increased research and development on DRAM, panels and key components used in smartphones forced Taiwanese and Japanese firms to retreat from those tough markets during the past five years, the report said.
According to the report, the targets of Samsung’s “kill Taiwan” project would include Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc, as well as Taiwanese panel makers AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Innolux Corp (群創光電) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管).
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
RSS