Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has made further progress in its expansion into semiconductor manufacturing as its subsidiary teams up with Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) to build a 12-inch wafer fab in Malaysia.
Big Innovation Holdings Ltd (BIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hon Hai, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DNeX to collaborate on establishing and operating the semiconductor fab in the Southeastern Asian country, it said in a statement released by DNeX on its Web site.
The fab is expected to produce 40,000 12-inch wafers per month, deploying 28-nanometer and 40-nanometer process technologies, the statement said.
Photo: screen grab from the Dagang NeXchange Bhd Web site
Under the MOU, DNeX and BIH are to work together to decide the site for the planned fab, project financing, and initial management structure and key personnel.
“The new fab will be the first 12-inch wafer fab in Malaysia initiated by a Bumiputera company,” Tan DNeX group managing director Sri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said.
“This technology node will have a long production life and have the widest range of applications,” he added.
Semiconductor manufacturing is one of Hon Hai’s three new business focuses.
The company, a key iPhone assembler, has set its sights on producing power management chips, radio frequency and image sensors using mature technologies rather than cutting-edge technologies, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors in March.
Hon Hai in June last year acquired 120 million shares, or a 5.03 percent, stake in DNeX for 108 million ringgit (US$24.6 million at the current exchange rate).
In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Hon Hai — known globally as Foxconn Technology Group — said the share purchase was done via its Singapore subsidiary Foxconn Singapore Pte Ltd.
In addition to Malaysia, Hon Hai in February signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd to establish a joint venture that aims to manufacture semiconductors in the South Asian nation.
Hon Hai expects semiconductor revenue to grow by 10 to 20 percent this year from NT$70 billion (US$2.35 billion) last year.
By 2023, it is forecast to surpass NT$100 billion, the company said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based