ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it plans to launch a new high-end chip testing fab in the US next month to better serve its key customers based in North America, particularly California-based artificial intelligence (AI) customers.
The new US testing facility would be operated by the firm’s subsidiary ISE Labs Inc, it said.
ASE’s major customers, and high-ranking US officials and representatives from American Institute in Taiwan are to attend the fab’s opening ceremony on July 12, it said.
Photo: CNA
ISE Labs last year acquired a 5,942m2 facility in San Jose, California, for US$24 million to expand capacity, ASE said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ISE Labs’ new testing fab would be part of ASE’s broader global expansion plans, ASE said.
ASE is scouting potential sites to deploy advanced chip packaging capacity in the US, Japan and Mexico, in response to customers’ growing demand to strengthen supply chain resilience amid mounting geopolitical risks, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told reporters on the sideline of the company’s shareholders’ meeting.
“With this substantial US investment, we intend to demonstrate our goal to create a global deployment. Our purpose is to take good care of our North American clients, very important clients, especially our AI clients based in California,” Wu said.
Additionally, ASE has applied to the US government to create a free trade zone in the region, allowing customers from different countries to ship advanced wafers there for testing and simplifying tedious export procedures, Wu said.
In Mexico, ASE has acquired a plot of land to build an automative electronics and power units supply chain there, with its subsidiary Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co (環旭電子), Wu said, targeting North America’s automative electronics used in autonomous vehicles and next-generation robots.
In Japan, ASE is looking for a location to build a larger-scale advanced packing facility than its operation in Yamagata, Wu said.
In Malaysia, ASE is looking to expand its capacity in Penang, where the company operates a major manufacturing site, to cope with increasing demand from a European automative chipmaker, he said.
The companies have inked a long-term supply agreement, he added.
ASE also raised its forecast for the revenue growth from advanced packaging technology, or chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), this year, due to demand for AI chips.
“Earlier this year, we expected to have an additional US$250 million revenue increase from the CoWoS business. Now it looks like we will exceed that figure. AI demand will remain solid in the second half and through next year,” Wu said.
ASE is collaborating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) to increase supply of CoWoS packaging capacity to catch up with strong AI chip demand, ASE said.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS