The value of Taiwan’s semiconductor output is expected to grow 22 percent year-on-year to more than US$164 billion this year, a top executive from chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and stronger economic growth.
Taiwan is a global power in semiconductors, which have become indispensable in an array of industries, from electronics to wind turbines, and even missiles.
TSMC controls more than half of the world’s output of chips and counts Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp among its clients.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
Speaking at an industry event in Hsinchu, TSMC senior vice president Cliff Hou (侯永清) said Taiwan’s semiconductor output is expected to reach NT$5.3 trillion (US$164.2 billion) this year, up 22 percent on last year.
The increase is “driven by advancements in AI and gradual economic recovery”, said Hou, who is also the chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association.
“We should accelerate research and development to ensure our standing as an indispensable member of the global semiconductor supply chain,” Hou said, according to Bloomberg news agency.
Hou’s remarks came after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. Trump has accused Taiwan of stealing the US chip industry, raising fears the sector could be hit with tariffs.
Last month, Trump told podcast host Joe Rogan that Taiwan took away US semiconductor business and jobs. “These chip companies, they stole 95 percent of our business. It’s in Taiwan right now. They do a great job, but that’s only because we have stupid politicians,” Trump said as part of a lengthy interview where he also stated he protected Taiwan from China during his first stint as president.
The incoming Republican president went on to suggest that he could leverage tariffs, not subsidies, to convince companies like TSMC to build and expand chipmaking facilities on US soil, Bloomberg reported.
Hou said yesterday that Taiwan’s chip industry has not received any notification about new tariffs.
TSMC is at the forefront of a generative AI revolution, churning out the world’s most advanced microchips needed to power products made by Silicon Valley.
Surging demand for AI is having a knock-on effect across the entire semiconductor supply chain in Taiwan, Wayne Lin (林偉智), executive vice president at Witology Markettrend Research Institute (智璞產業趨勢研究所), told AFP.
“This expansion contributes to Taiwan’s projected output, along with the traditional peak season for mobile communications toward the year-end,” Lin said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS