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.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS