Qualcomm Inc yesterday inaugurated a new innovation center in Kaohsiung as it steps up efforts to foster local start-ups and a 5G technology ecosystem in the city, following in the footsteps of its local partners.
The US chip company’s move fits the Kaohsiung City Government’s plan to build a semiconductor supply chain within the next five years, highlighted by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) first chip plant in the city.
TSMC plans to start building the factory by the end of this year, and to start production of 28-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips there in 2024.
Photo: Hsu Li-chuan, Taipei Times
Qualcomm said it had been considering setting up operations in Kaohsiung for the past two years, as it had found that more customers, partners and start-ups have expanded their operations to the city.
Some of the start-ups participating in the innovation challenges arranged by Qualcomm are from southern Taiwan, the company said.
“Some of our partners have started building their operations in Kaohsiung, such as Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), which unveiled a 5G AIoT [artificial Internet of Things] research center in August,” Qualcomm Taiwan president S. T. Liew (劉思泰) told reporters in Kaohsiung.
“With our partners and start-ups thriving in southern Taiwan, we have to be here with them,” Liew said.
With the new Qualcomm Innovation Center, Southern Taiwan, Liew said the company aims to provide incubation support to start-ups, including business instructions, talent training, and advanced testing labs supporting 5G AIoT, O-RAN, small-cell base stations and robotics tests.
Qualcomm would also share its knowledge with the start-ups regarding patent applications, commercialization and technology support, he said.
Some start-ups have entered Qualcomm’s supply chain after joining programs created by Qualcomm’s Taipei Innovation Center, Liew said.
The innovation center in the Asia New Bay Area 5G AIoT Innovation Park in Kaohsiung is its second one in Taiwan.
The company has also set up similar innovation centers in Vietnam and India, given the robust start-up and technology ecosystems in those countries, Qualcomm vice president Sudeepto Roy told reporters.
Qualcomm has tripled its workforce in Taiwan to about 1,500 from about 500 since Liew took the company’s reins in 2016 to support its rapid business expansions.
The company is recruiting engineers specialized in software and hardware design, it said.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS