An investigation into illegal talent poaching by Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies has revived fears Chinese companies will target Taiwan's top engineers as their country works to build a world-class chipmaking industry.

As the US looks to fulfill its semiconductor needs on its own, Arizona is fast emerging as a base for the domestic industry's revival. Already home to large Intel workforces, the state will soon add staff from Taiwan's TSMC, supplier LCY Group, and potentially Samsung, as a slew of industry giants eye sites in the sun-beaten Southwestern state.

US President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order as early as this month to accelerate efforts to build supply chains for chips and other strategically significant products that are less reliant on China, in partnership with the likes of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Brian Deese, has sought the Taiwanese government's help resolving a global semiconductor shortage that's idling US car manufacturing plants, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.

A shortage of auto chips has exposed TSMC's key role in the supply chain.

Germany has asked Taiwan to persuade Taiwanese manufacturers to help ease a shortage of semiconductor chips in the auto sector which is hampering its fledgling economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A targeted approach with American allies such as Taiwan and South Korea, both leading semiconductor manufacturers, with the narrower aim of keeping the most advanced technology out of China's hands may be preferred by the new administration.

Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend an estimated JPY30 billion (US$285 million) to raise capacity for a crucial semiconductor plant material by 20%, expanding its supply for cutting-edge chip production, Nikkei has learned.

Taiwan is dangling incentives to attract more than NT$40 billion ($1.3 billion) of annual investments in research and technology, creating a seven-year blueprint to safeguard the island's lead in semiconductors and other cutting-edge fields.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has agreed to build an advanced chip factory in the United States, in a response to the Trump administration's growing concerns about the security of the global electronics supply chain and its competitive tensions with China, according to people briefed on the plans.

Taiwan will ban entry for many foreigners as part of coronavirus prevention measures, excluding resident permit holders, diplomats and migrant workers, the government said on Wednesday, as it battles a rise in imported cases.

The office space market in Taiwan is already overcrowded, thanks to reshoring - or the practice of bringing production and manufacturing for homegrown companies back to the country of origin.

Taiwan's stock market is racing toward its first record high in almost three decades. Investors are taking an upbeat view on the global semiconductor industry, but President Trump's standoff with China over technology has also helped.

Japan's Panasonic will sell its loss-making semiconductor business to Taiwan's Nuvoton Technology, a Nikkei Asian Review reported on Thursday.

Apple opens second Taiwan store

Foxconn is poised to nominate chip unit boss Liu Young to succeed Terry Gou as chairman in a surprise choice by the iPhone assembler, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Samsung has selected Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 instead of its Exynos 9820 as the AP in the Galaxy Fold. The Snapdragon 855 is produced by TSMC in Taiwan at a 7 nm process, while the Exynos 9820 is produced at Samsung foundry's 8nm process.

Japan Display in advanced talks with Taiwan's TPK Holding and Chinese state-owned Silk Road Fund about an investment.

Taiwan has arrested a group of engineers from the local subsidiary of the German company BASF for allegedly stealing and transferring the company's technology to a Chinese rival.

Taiwan's United Microelectronics will move nearly half of its DRAM team to new positions within the company in what sources say is the first step toward terminating its memory chip development business.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has downgraded executive cars and cut business travel in a belt-tightening campaign meant to prepare for a difficult 2019.

For America, it makes both economic and strategic sense.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is poised to secure a crucial order from IBM for premium server chips, validating the company as a serious challenger to global chipmaker Intel in the high-value data center market.

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday unveiled an indictment against two companies based in China and Taiwan and three individuals.

Intel's exclusive deal to provide modem chips for new iPhones has strained its ability to supply such longtime personal computer partners as Taiwan's Acer and Asustek Computer, which face shortages of a key component heading into the year-end shopping season, industry sources said.

Taiwanese PC giants, such as Acer, Asustek Computer, Compal Electronics and Quanta Computer might expect setbacks in production due to the CPU shortage.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. "will not rule out the possibility" of buying a memory chip company, Chairman Mark Liu told the Nikkei Asian Review.

More than 30 years after it served as the setting for the birth of the semiconductor foundry industry with the founding of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in 1987, Taiwan shows no sign of relinquishing its stranglehold on the US$62 billion global business.

Apple quietly fixed a bug in iOS 11 that caused some devices to crash when the word "Taiwan" was entered in a text field or the Taiwan emoji was used, according to a security researcher.

Apple manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has started mass production of next-generation processors for new iPhones launching later in 2018, according to people familiar with the matter.

Globalfoundries has asked Chinese regulators to probe Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for violating antitrust laws, said two industry sources familiar with the matter.

Asian stocks retreated from Friday's record after Morgan Stanley downgraded Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, saying their shares had risen too much.

Toshiba has entered into negotiations to sell its money-losing personal computer operations to Asustek Computer of Taiwan, continuing to shed noncore businesses to get its tattered finances back in order.

An Earth-observation satellite for Taiwan's National Space Organization was launched into orbit from California on Thursday. The Formosat-5 satellite lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:51 a.m. atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully landed its first stage on a drone ship floating in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage continued on and deployed the satellite.

An operation technical error in Tatan Power Plant in Taoyuan's Guanyin District at 4:52 p.m. caused six generators to stop working, affecting the supply of 4 million kilowatts of electricity. The plant is Taiwan's biggest natural gas power plant.

Toshiba's board will meet on Wednesday to consider offers for its chip unit from Western Digital and Taiwan's Foxconn in addition to a bid from a consortium that was previously favorite, a source familiar with the matter said. Toshiba is scrambling to sell its flash memory unit to cover losses from its bankrupt US nuclear business Westinghouse.

Given China's rapid growth as an economic and political superpower, it has been increasingly easy for Beijing to sway countries to its side.

Samsung Electronics has lost Qualcomm's 7-nanometer (nm) chip order to Taiwan-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Samsung Electronics is increasing its effort in semiconductor outsourcing, separating the company's foundry business into a new unit as part of a challenge to market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Taiwan's Foxconn has asked for SoftBank Group's cooperation in its bid for Toshiba Corp's prized memory chip unit, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.