Aspeed Technology Inc (信驊), which designs specialized processors used to remotely monitor and manage host systems, announced the launch of a research and development (R&D) center in Kaohsiung as a base for its southward expansion in Taiwan.
The company plans to set up the R&D center on the north side of Banana Pier at the Asia New Bay Area (亞洲新灣區), which is a new industrial, exhibition and cultural site in the port city, the company said in a news release yesterday, citing chairman Chris Lin (林鴻明) at an event celebrating the firm’s 20th anniversary on Saturday.
“Aspeed has taken root in Hsinchu for a long time, and we deeply feel the responsibility to help balance the nation’s north-south development in terms of the technology industry,” Lin said in the release.
Photo: Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau
“We are quite confident in the development of Kaohsiung’s semiconductor industry and the overall investment environment. In the future, we will also rely on Kaohsiung’s outstanding local semiconductor and IC design talent to promote Aspeed’s development in southern Taiwan and continue to strengthen the firm’s industrial competitiveness,” he added.
The announcement came after the company, which is the world’s biggest supplier of baseboard management controllers (BMCs) used in servers, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Kaohsiung City Government in May to establish a new operations base in the city.
A BMC is a specialized microcontroller embedded on the motherboard of servers and high-end computers to remotely monitor and manage a host system. Aspeed has benefited from the rising demand for BMCs driven by the growth momentum in artificial intelligence servers and edge computing devices in recent years.
During the first 11 months of this year, Aspeed raked in NT$5.72 billion (US$176 million) in revenue, an annual increase of 103.53 percent, company data showed.
Under the MOU, Aspeed plans to establish an exhibition center for its 360-degree immersive imaging solutions, called Cupola360, and continues to promote smart city remote patrol solutions. The company would also expand R&D and design capabilities in Kaohsiung in the future to strengthen its technical leadership, it said.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who attended Saturday’s event, welcomed the company’s new investment, saying it would help promote the development of high-end technology in the city.
So far, leading semiconductor companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電), as well as tech giants such as IBM Corp, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Cisco Systems Inc, have established system software and R&D centers in the Asia New Bay Area, according to the Kaohsiung City Government.
In addition, Nvidia Corp has completed the construction of a supercomputer center in the Asia New Bay Area, while Hon Hai has announced that it would team up with Nvidia to build an advanced computing center there, the city government added.
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
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
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
‘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
RSS