At a recent semiconductor forum hosted by a think tank under Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), former TSMC R&D Director Konrad Young and various scholars from Taiwan and Japan highlighted some of the cooperation opportunities and challenges between Taiwanese and Japanese semiconductor ecosystems. As TSMC goes on to expand its presence in Japan while the Japanese chip industry simultaneously seeks to carve its own path through the Rapidus initiative, the event, held by NSTC's Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) on March 22, left much for the audience to brainstorm.
Tim Cook's recent trip to China underscored Apple's emphasis on the Chinese market, where iPhone sales have been reported to be below estimates since 2024.
Support from Taiwan's supply chain was behind US memory IDM Micron's successful mass production of its latest-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM) product – HBM3E – ahead of other competitors, to supply Nvidia's H200 GPU in 2024.
In a pivotal move, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has convened to discuss the impending surge in electricity prices, slated to take effect in April. The decision, marking an approximate 11% hike in electricity rates, is poised to shake up the island nation's energy landscape, particularly impacting heavy electricity consumers.
In a speech in January 2024, Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda said battery EVs (BEV) can only take up at most 30% market share, no matter how much the vehicle progresses. Hybrid EVs (HEV), hydrogen fuel cell EVs (FCEVs), and hydrogen fuel-burning vehicles will account for the rest, he added.
Ranovus, a Canadian silicon photonics scaleup company specializing in high-speed optical interconnect chips, announced on March 20, 2024, a groundbreaking partnership with MediaTek Inc., Taiwan's leading fabless semiconductor firm, to deliver the industry's first 6.4Tbps Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) solution with integrated lasers aimed at AI data centers.
Apple Inc.'s recent decision to give up a Micro LED smartphone collaboration with ams OSRAM forced the latter to sell its new factory in Malaysia to deal with the strategic change. Reza Chaji, CEO of VueReal, a Micro LED startup company based in Ontario, Canada, gave his insight on the challenges of the Micro LED industry during an exclusive interview with DIGITIMES.
Following media reports that the Netherlands-based lithography equipment leader ASML is harboring thoughts to move its operations abroad, the country's political climate, especially the recent electoral victory of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), has come under the industrial spotlight.
In the face of an impending climate crisis, the global carbon compliance and voluntary credit market are projected to soar to unprecedented heights, reaching a staggering US$2.68 trillion by 2028, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.2%. At the forefront of this transformative shift stands FiO, a US-SG-based Web 3.0 startup poised to offer a fresh perspective on the carbon credit market.
Electronic devices account for over 40% of Taiwan's exports, but semiconductor products are shipped through air freight. Meanwhile, notebook PC and smartphone production lines have migrated to other regions, but are still highly dependent on chips produced in Taiwan. Thus the destinations of semiconductor exports may gradually shift to different locations.
Apple's Vision Pro has been in the market for around a month after its launch in early February. Some believe this device will replace the iPhone, iPad, and Mac in a few years. While this likely won't happen any time soon, looking ahead, the release of Vision Pro has undoubtedly brought attention to spatial computing. The ability to allow users to interact with virtual objects naturally and intuitively has also brought a certain level of novelty to the industry.
