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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS