The Japanese government would begin preparing a bill to expand financial aid aimed at increasing local production of semiconductors by domestic and foreign companies, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to submit the bill to an ordinary Diet session this year, the daily reported, citing people it did not identify who belong to the administration and ruling party.
Global chip shortages in industries ranging from automotive to entertainment have slowed growth in the world economy as it attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said earlier this month that it would build a chip factory in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, with a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp becoming a minority shareholder in the venture.
The bill would also strengthen the government’s ability to check the country of origin of any computer equipment it purchases, with a goal to block China-made computer devices before they were installed in a national security capacity, the Yomiuri reported.
Separately, Samsung Electronics Co vice chairman Jay Y. Lee yesterday left for Canada and the US in his first overseas business trip since his parole in August, Yonhap News agency reported.
Samsung’s de facto chief told reporters at an airport that he would meet with “various partners” in the US, Yonhap said.
While it is unclear what Lee would do in his first business travel to the country in five years, he could visit Samsung’s chip plant site in Austin, Texas, amid the shortage of semiconductors and might finalize the selection of the site for the firm’s new US chip plant, according to the report.
Lee is also to visit Boston, where Moderna Inc’s headquarters are located. Samsung Biologics Co makes the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
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