A record number of exhibitors will this year attend Semicon Taiwan, an annual international trade fair in the semiconductor technology sector, when it opens on Wednesday next week in Taipei, organizer SEMI Taiwan said yesterday.
The annual event will feature more than 3,600 booths from over 1,100 exhibitors from home and abroad, the highest number since it was first held in 1996, according to SEMI Taiwan, an organization located in Hsinchu County that connects about 3,000 member companies and 1.5 million professionals worldwide to advance the technology and business of electronics design and manufacturing.
Ray Yang (楊瑞臨), an international strategy development consulting director at the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and a committee member at SEMI Taiwan, said this year’s event has a theme of "Empowering AI Without Limits," and highlights the significance of silicon photonics and fan-out panel level packaging (FOPLP).
Photo: CNA
A forum focusing on silicon photonics will be held during the event, featuring experts from organizations and companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Inter-university Microelectronic Centre, and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, for discussions regarding the opportunities and challenges facing silicon photonics, Yang added.
Silicon photonics — known for its high bandwidth, low power consumption, long-distance transmission and cost-saving features — has become a hot topic in the semiconductor industry. It is estimated that the global silicon photonics market could reach US$7.86 billion by 2030.
In addition, a forum on FOPLP will also be held, with experts including those from Applied Materials Inc, Manz AG and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc discussing and exploring related technological developments.
Driven by demand for 5G, artificial intelligence of things, automotive, high-performance computing and consumer products, FOPLP shows significant growth potential. According to research firm Yole Group, the market is expected to reach US$221 million by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 32.5 percent from last year to 2028.
Meanwhile, several TSMC senior managers, including executive vice president and co-chief operating officer YJ Mii (米玉傑), vice president of Pathfinding and Corporate Research Min Cao (曹敏), vice president of Advanced Packaging Technology and Service Jun He (何軍) and director of Advanced Packaging Business Development Jerry Tsou (鄒覺倫), will deliver speech at different forums during the event, Yang said.
He added that there will be 13 country sections at this year’s exhibition, with France, Malaysia and the Philippines new additions to the list.
Semicon Taiwan will take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ¥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to