MediaTek is optimistic about its operation in 2021, with revenues expected to rise up to 8% sequentially in the first quarter of 2021 thanks to clients' robust orders, and the momentum is also expected to benefit MediaTek's backend services partners. Many of them are set to increase their capacity support to the chip designer in 2021. Meanwhile, carmakers in Germany, Japan and the US are lining up for the capacity support from Taiwan-based wafer foundries due to seriously shortages of chips.Backend firms upbeat about demand for MediaTek chips: Backend houses in the supply chain of MediaTek have expressed optimism about demand for the fabless client's 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and automotive chip solutions in 2021, and are ramping up capacity support for the chipmaker, according to industry sources.MediaTek expects up to 8% revenue growth in 1Q21: MediaTek expects to post revenue growth of up to 8% sequentially to between NT$96.4 billion (US$3.44 billion) and NT$104.1 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Despite foundry capacity constraints, overall demand will grow outperforming seasonal patterns during the quarter, according to company CEO Rick Tsai.Automotive chip suppliers queuing up for capacity support: Automotive chip suppliers are queuing up for capacity support from foundries, particularly 8-inch ones, and may be prompted to accept higher quotes for more capacity, according to industry sources.

Just days after Intel seemingly dismissed speculation about expanding outsourcing to TSMC, sources from Taiwan's supply chain have disclosed that the US chip vendor has plans to have the pure-play foundry fabricate its core CPUs at 3nm node in 2022. In the display sector, LCD panel prices are set to rise again in first-quarter 2021, thanks to strong demand amid component shortages. For touch panel makers TPK and GIS, they stand a good chance of receiving most of the orders from Apple for iPad devices in 2021.TSMC to make 3nm chips for Intel, sources claim: TSMC has already struck a deal with Intel under which the pure-play foundry will use 3nm process technology to manufacture the US vendor's core CPU products, with volume production scheduled for the second half of 2022, according to sources familiar with the matter.LCD panel prices to rise over 10% in 1Q21: LCD panel prices are poised to rise another 10% on average to hit a four-year high in first-quarter 2021, having been raised by 15-20% in the previous quarter, according to industry sources.TPK, GIS to share most touch-panel module orders for iPad in 2021, say sources: Taiwan's top-two touch-panel module makers TPK Holding and General Interface Solution (GIS) are likely to share the majority of Apple's iPad device orders in 2021, according to industry sources.

Amazon Web Service (AWS) has announced industrial AI solutions designed specifically for the manufacturing industry that provides sensor and image recognition equipment.The move has helped AWS expand its business coverage to the AIoT market and showed that public cloud services providers are already able to enhance their AI as a service (AIaaS) from general purposes to applications for specific industries, Digitimes Research noted.This will accelerate the penetration of AI and help industries conduct digital transformation, but will undermine AI startups as well as existing AIoT device makers and service providers.Many public cloud platforms have offered general-type AIaaS to satisfy their enterprise clients' needs, but lacking domain knowhow, many enterprises find the platforms difficult to use, resulting in weak demand for the services. To improve the situation, public cloud service providers have begun releasing AI solutions for specific industries.

Taiwan is the leader in many semiconductor sectors, but the "last mile" in terms of logistics and shipping centers is missing in the country - a gap that WPG Holdings is ready to fill with its plans to support the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, according to Frank Yeh, vice chairman of the IC distributor.The last mile for logistics and shipping centers has been often held by Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, but WPG's LaaS (logistics as a service) digital transformation platform will play a major part in the development project around the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to bridge that gap in the semiconductor supply chain, said Yeh.Yeh, who is in charge of digital transformation at WPG Holdings, noted that in terms of warehousing for leading US chip vendors, Qualcomm is mainly based in Singapore, Nvidia in Hong Kong, and Broadcom in Malaysia.But Taiwan plays an important role in the upstream semiconductor supply chain, with Taiwan's top design houses, such as MediaTek, and Rexchip and major chip vendors from the US and China, all relying on support from foundry houses, such as TSMC and UMC, from OSAT providers, such as ASE Technology Holding, and IC substrate suppliers, such as Unimicron, Yeh said.Among them, TSMC can provide one-stop services from wafer foundry to advanced packaging and testing for the most advanced chips such as Apple's APs and HPCs.Though the manufacturing of ICs is done in Taiwan, the shipping centers for them are not, said Yeh.WPG has seen its smart warehousing transforming from 1.0 and 2.0 to the present 3.0, which is the LaaS model, which will be further implemented in Taoyuan Aerotropolis, said Yeh.Yeh believes turning Taoyuan into a global shipping center and integrating into the supply chain the "warehousing OEM" model will make Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain a complete one - or an "Taiwan IDM," said Yeh.Yeh said this is the ultimate goal - turning Taiwan into a global semiconductor logistics center - of the MoU that WPG and Taoyuan Aerotropolis have singed.Yeh estimates that the logistics center should be able to start operation as early as 2024.Such smart warehousing operations at Taoyuan Aerotropolis will require considerable investment, but it will be neccessary if one needs to serve customers who set up factories in Vietnam or India amid the US-China trade war, said Yeh.WPG has first "practiced" from the Hong Kong warehouse and completed smart warehousing 1.0, Yeh said. Its operations in southern China serves Chinese customers and has regional functions, which is 2.0; and the warehouse in Taoyuan will be the smart warehousing 3.0 version, which is the most important and most comprehensive, he said.According to Yeh, in Singapore, for example, the management of semiconductor-related warehousing services is carried out in traditional ways, with only two warehouses and no value-added services, and the cost for clients is even higher. It is similar in Hong Kong.Customers are aware of these difficulties, but there is no better solution, Yeh said, adding if they can ship out the chips from warehouses in Taoyuan, the labor and time costs will be much lower.

Global car sales may be recovering, but carmakers are deeply concerned about shortages of automotive components. IC foundries are trying to devote more capacity to making automotive chips, but carmakers may have to wait for months before additional foundry capacity comes online to serve them later this year. Foundries have been devoting their capacity mainly to IT and 5G applications, demand for which has been robust. Taiwan's ABF substrate suppliers have seen order visibility extending further to second-half 2021, thanks partly to strong demand from major CPU and GPU vendors. Notebook vendors' growths last year might have been higher had it not been components shortages. Acer reportedly saw its commercial notebook sales more than double in the US in 2020.Foundries building additional capacity for automotive chips: Taiwan-based pure-play foundries will be expanding production capacity for automotive chips at a gradual pace, with additional output to arrive as early as the third quarter of this year, according to industry sources.ABF substrate suppliers see clear order visibility stretch into 2H21: Taiwan-based IC substrate providers including Unimicron Technology, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus Interconnect Technology have seen the visibility of orders for ABF substrates extend to second-half 2021, promising another lucrative year for them, according to industry sources.Acer notebook sales surge in US: Acer saw its commercial notebook sales hike 119% on year in the US in 2020, according to some market observers citing research figures.

COVID-19 and the US-China trade war have combined to accelerate a split of the global supply chain in two - namely a "G2" pattern with one serving China and the other the rest of the world. Such a scenario has also highlighted Taiwan's importance.Digitimes recently interviewed Frank Yeh, vice chairman of WPG Holdings - a leading IC distributor - as the world entered 2021 with coronavirus still wreaking havoc and the trade tensions between the superpowers raging on. Yeh talked about the future of supply chains and changes to the world.Q: What upgrades to the supply chain will smartization bring?A: I can say that all manufacturing industires are customers of WPG Holdings, but I do not understand manufacturing. I have read Digitimes president Colley Hwang's book "Disconnected ICT Supply Chains" at least three times.The broken supply chains, the US-China trade war that started two years ago, and the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 - they have combined to deal an enormous blow to the world. All the supply chains are changing. In 2019, everyone was busy running to Southeast Asia, and in 2020 they were not even able to reach there. The situation about broken supply chains will be more serious. Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Depending on how you look at it, it may be a great opportunity.What I want to do is to train myself, to train my mentality and way of thinking. What is really happening when we say the supply chains are broken? It is clear that the world's factory no longer exists. In the past, massive resources concentrated in China, from which products were delievered globally. This is changing. The G2 pattern resulted from the US-China trade war has gradually become the new normal, and the pandemic still seems to be raging on.In the traditional upstream-downstream communincation model, A may pass information directly to B, who then paases it to C. But in platform-style management, everyone shares information with each other, and nowadays with regionalization becoming the trend, digital platform management is becoming more and more important.Q: What are the changes in human lifestyles and industries that are worthy of attention in 2021?A: The concepts of remote work and co-presence will continues to be relevant. For example, online concerts and online inventors conferences. This echoes what I've mentioned before about getting "digital tools" ready to do these things. Taiwan's success in containing the epidemic has allowed study, work and social activities to remain normal without having to switch to the remote mode. But that has ironically limited their awareness of the fact that remote work and co-presence will be the new normal in the future.For companies, it is very important for managers to learn one thing, that is, managing without seeing employees. Do we pay for employees' time or employees' work results? Under the former model, employees might be late for work and get pay deducted. But if they can work from any places, what companies want are the results of their employees' work. This is the biggest change.For example, WPG's operations in the US have yet to allow employees to go into the offices. Of course the warehouses have to remain open, but offices of sales departments remain closed to employees. After the outbreak began, about 2000 WPG employees in China were unable to go into their offices starting February 1, 2020 until the end of March. And we have take note of the demographic changes - both qualitative and quantitative changes.Q: How do you see the impact of demographic changes on the industry?A: In the first half of 2020, Taiwan finally came to the point where the birth rate was lower than the death rate. According to the Ministry of the Interior, if there is no change in Taiwan's future birth plan, it is estimated that by 2049, Taiwan's total population will be less than 17 million. In light of these trends, when we talk about the issue of talent cultivation, the population size is not big enough with the people continuing aging and the number of children shrinking.These so-called digital natives have been accustomed to various digital devices since childhood and are familiar with the digital environment. Do they want to work in the same company for a long time? Or do they want to keep working for themselves? This is what is often referred to as the "slashie life" where one can get any information to do anything through digital platforms.If business leaders realize the importance of results, rather than the time employees spend on work, it is not necessary for employees to travel to Taipei (in nothern Taiwan) if they are in Hualien (in eastern Taiwan), and it is even possible for one person to serve multiple companies, and even for one company to serve multiple companies. As these global demographic changes continue to develop, we need to look at it not just for tomorrow, but for the next 10, 20 or 30 years.Q: What kind of changes will the industry face in the next 30 years and how should we deal with them?A: Since we are not just looking at tomorrow, but the longer-term future, we should also think about what we should do today at this point in time.In the past, industry competition only focused on the opponent, and all we thought about every day was the opponent's "A," and that I could respond with "A+B." But we might be able to defeat the opponent and yet end up a loser in the bigger perspective of an entire era. There have been too many such cases, such as companies focusing too much on dealing with opponents and forgetting the needs of customers. Is the future really all about competition? Are there any opportunities for cooperation? What areas should we compete in and what areas should we cooperate in? The future will be an era of coopetition. It is impossible for every company to be the industry leader, but there are still ways for others.In my opinion, companies should think about the vertical and horizontal aspects. For example, business and manufacturing areas are considered matters of vertical aspects. What is the horizontal aspects? We can think about the future era of big data. If a company hosts the main server on its own premises, then 10,000 companies means employing 10,000 server engineers? This is the horizontal aspect. I think for future logistics, we may consider the "sharing" approach, undergoing transformation to digital platforms.With the advent of the era of coopetition, coupled with the future demographic changes and new thinking, we must change in order to keep up with the times. A company is only a particular point; we must look at the bigger picture, namely how to operate an industry. WPG Holdings has been undergoing digital transformation for five years. I also think I am operating an industry.Q: How can we proceed from the perspective of electronics-related sectors?A: As an IC distributor, I have been thinking about how to help customer succeed. The core is the supply chain. There are four groups and 53 companies under WPG Holdings, and under the digital transformation strategy, we have been carrying out group optimization. We embrace the collective optimization of the value chain, all for the sake of the success of customers.Take the notebook industry as an example. There are at least 400-500 suppliers, and only through collective optimization can we have the opportunity to become a worldwide ecosystem. Through the collective optimization of the notebook industry, all relevant supply chains in Taiwan can have a grasp of the global notenook market. Just like the machinery tool industry: through multiple "lines" of several sectors the "surface" will be formed and eventually become an "ecosystem". In my opinion, underlying co-production, co-prosperity and co-creation is sharing.In the past, people sacrificed their holidays for work, or some people chose to sacrifice their jobs in order to retire early. Work and life were opposites. But if co-presence is enacted in the future, life and work can be mixed flexibly through the digital platform management. This is the so-called "workation." Even if we are in a beautiful mountain, we can still work as long as we have connection to the Internet. With networks and the clouds, everyone could work till 85 years old.Q: How can IC distributors face issues concerning regionalized supply chains and how can LaaS (logistics as a service) bring new values into play?A: The smart manufacturing supply chain is concerned with only one thing, that is, the cost resulting from time. If the time required is close to zero, the cost is also close to zero. For example, if the days of inventory are 30, they must be kept in the warehouse, and this is the cost. The semiconductor industry is committed to introducing intelligent factory automation to reduce time. These have gradually emerged as successful cases.But whether we can be of further help in the future, we always have to zero in on whether we can bring the successful experience to the next 30 years, and boldly dream about the next 30 years. For example, my personal dream is to continue working at 85, so what do I have to learn? This includes maintaining health and embracing the concept of workation.In 2020, for example, despite the challenges of the pandemic, many industries were still doing very well. For WPG, business has bene robust despite the pandemic, so what else do you need to think about? Of course, if we just look at tomorrow, it seems that we do not need to think much. But if it is 2030 or 2040 we are looking at, there will be surprisingly a lot.With the new business model of LaaS proposed by WPG, we can think of two things: first, whether the cost of transaction time can be close to zero; second, what the channel operators have to do, so that customers' transaction time can be close to zero, which may further be translated into energy savings and carbon reductions. In terms of transportation, materials are sent from WPG's warehouses to customers' warehouses, which is the traditional way. But in the future, they will be sent directly from WPG's warehouses to customers' assembly lines. Even blockchain and other technologies can be introduced.WPG distributes products from about 250 companies. Its warehouses receive shipments from around the world every day. They have to check the items and label them before storing them. After receiving orders, the warehouses need to prepare the items and ship them to clients, who, after receiving the shipments, will have to spend three days unloading and checking them. They will have to spend another three days moving the items to the assembly lines, where the items have to be checked and confirmed again.The warehouses and production lines belong to different departments, and every time you place an order, it necessarily involves time costs. It doesn't matter whether you employ manual labor or automated assembly lines; it's the same. It's particularly difficult to do inventory accounting for ICs that are so small. This is the current situation.But if the transaction time is shortened to zero, customers can reduce costs. IC distributors will not need to carry out the process of putting items into cartons and so on; they can send the items directly to the assembly lines. Are there big customers doing so? So far, we've only reached "particular points," so to speak. The key is how we can convince others to come on board, so we will continue promote the concept of coopetition.The chief operating officer of a client company pointed out that the LaaS model seems "too crazy to be possible." It is a very difficult approach, but the clients admits that it could be beneficial for clients.WPG Holdings vice chairman Frank YehPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, January 2021

Demand for notebooks remains robust, thanks to the stay-at-home economy. Notebook ODMs expect orders to be stable in first-half 2021, and their order visibility for the second half of the year is getting clearer. In the handset sector, demand for 5G smartphones is also picking up. To enhance its competitiveness, MediaTek is expected to upgrade two of its mobile processors for the entry level to midrange segments later this year. Vietnam is a fast growign economy. Digitimes recently interviewed Tien Nguyen, founder of Vietnam-based investment platform Wiziin trying to understand what opportunities the Southeast Asian country offers.ODMs see notebook order visibility extending in 2H21: Thanks to the stay-at-home economy driven by the coronavirus pandemic, notebook shipments are expected to stay robust in 2021, with ODMs see stable orders for the first half of the year and visibility for the second half is also becoming clearer, according to sources from the notebook upstream supply chain.MediaTek to roll out upgraded 5G chips in 1H21: Judging from MediaTek's product roadmap, the chipmaker is expected to unveil the upgraded versions of its Dimensity 800 and 700 5G SoC lineups in second-quarter 2021, according to industry sources.Vietnam investment opportunities: Q&A with Wiziin CEO Tien Nguyen: Many startups are confused about how to find angel investors, while investors are discouraged by the lack of transparency of information about startup investments. Nguyen Ngoc Tien (aka Tien Nguyen), founder and CEO of Wiziin Vietnam, saw this pain point and created a platform to connect investors with startups and quality SMEs, using artificial intelligence (AI) to help startups manage investor relationships and find potential investors, while giving investors real-time and accurate information of startups to help manage their portfolio.

True wireless stereo (TWS) devices were highlighted at the recently concluded online CES 2021, as many handset brands, acoustic device suppliers and startups showcased their latest products at the event.Most TWS devices presented at the fair emphasized their respective ANC (active noise cancellation) capabilities, improved call noise reduction functionality and power efficiency, Digitimes Research has found.The increasing application of ANC technology has increased the number of microphones used by each monaural earphone to over three from 1-2 used previously, improving communication quality and transparency mode.Thanks to increasing competition, prices of ANC-enabled TWS have been lowered to the US$150-segment, enabling more consumers to access ANC experiences, which in turn helps expand TWS market share.Smartphone vendors are launching TWS devices to expand their handset ecosystem, emphasizing that their TWS products deliver a consistent experience with their handsets in terms of outer appearances, colors and designs.Traditional acoustic device makers, including JBL and Bose, are developing TWS devices to expand their portfolios by optimizing their prowess for acoustic products with integrated functionalities such as voice assistance.Most startups focus on target customer groups rolling out TWS products with enhanced performance, such as high water-proof and head-motion sensing capabilities.

Many startups are confused about how to find angel investors, while investors are discouraged by the lack of transparency of information about startup investments. Nguyen Ngoc Tien (aka Tien Nguyen), founder and CEO of Wiziin Vietnam, saw this pain point and created a platform to connect investors with startups and quality SMEs, using artificial intelligence (AI) to help startups manage investor relationships and find potential investors, while giving investors real-time and accurate information of startups to help manage their portfolio.In a recent online interview, Digitimes talked to Nguyen to understand what value this new platform may create for the new venture ecosystem.Q: Could you briefly introduce your background? And what brought you to start your entrepreneurial journey?A: My background is business strategy. And in 2010, I started my first project in e-learning. And we provide the Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC) services for universities. After that startup, I created a new one in Hong Kong, offering cards for loyalty programs for, say, members of Chamber of Commerce. At that point of time, that businesses was very promising, because people used physical cards, but we offered them digital cards with which they could redeem their loyalty rewards. We then exited from this business to a Japanese investor.And then I created my third venture, an outsource platform for software. The Vietnamese engineers of that platform were excellent, and we offered good prices. The outsourcing industry bloom at that point of time allowed us to expand and invest more in other projects in Internet of Things (IoT) and social network.And in 2016, I got a scholarship from the Irish government to study in Ireland in strategy. Therefore, my main academic background is business strategy and military strategy. After that master's program, I went to Beijing, and did a project as a strategic researcher. At the same time, I remained an entrepreneur, I opened companies in Ireland and in England, respectively, both focusing on artificial intelligence and big data.At that point of time, by doing projects with my professors in University College Dublin and the Silicon Dock in Ireland, I realized the real roles and interactions of innovation-based startups and VCs. So I joined Act Venture Capital, which managed a fund of EUR500 million, backed by the European Central Bank. We invested in renewable energy projects, in biotech, and tech companies. I managed that for four years. And then I came back here in Vietnam, but I remain a limited partner (LP) of the firm.I realized that there is a gap in investment in the Asia Pacific region. It is also very difficult to do due-diligence because information sometimes is not very transparent, and not accurate. However, as an investor, we need to release the money. Keeping the money in our pocket is a waste. So that's why we try to narrow the gap by creating Wiziin. Wiziin is an investment platform where we try to collect transparent and accurate information from startups and investors and make them available real-time. And we not only have the matching services to provide for both, we also provide the tools. It costs startups a lot of time to maintain investor relationships to raise funds. Wiziin helps them maintain investor relations on the platform. Startups can focus on their daily operation activities, but when they need to raise funds, they can use Wiziin to find appropriate investors. And for the investors, by using the investor dashboard, they can keep track of whichever startups in their portfolio.I believe that we can create more options for both - not just for investors but also for entrepreneurs.Q: How does AI come to play at Wiziin? How do you make AI work for your platform?A: After years of experience working in big data and AI projects, as an investor, I understand that the first stage of AI should be data. When we try to find one good enough startup, we scan through thousands of startups, and do tons of work just to find the right ones. I realized that some of our analysts, sometimes they get lost in the job, and sometimes they are a little bit biased, when they try to do the initial screening for the startup.So, first, we gather data big enough for analysis. We have got more than 60,000 Vietnamese SMEs data ready for the platform. I believe in the future there will be more because we will expand coverage to entire Asia Pacific region. Why SME? Because in the region the number of SMEs is huge. And with that data, we need to calculate and analyze everything, but it is impossible to do so much work. So, we developed an AI bot that can program themselves. So, the bot programs itself every day by gathering data. When SMEs upload their data to us, such as financial data, operational data and founders' data, we collect everything with high level of privacy standards in order to fuel the investment decision making process.We collect four kinds of data: first, the background of the founding team. The second one is the technology that they use. Do they have patents, licenses? Anything like that. The third thing is market data, about the market and their market share. And the fourth is financial data: revenues, earnings, how much money the founders are putting into the company, etc. We also try our best to collect and analyze data from reliable third parties, like the government.After some analysis, our AI bot will generate an evaluation. So, through time we believe that our valuation will be as close as the valuation that happens in real life. And we try to introduce a kind of machine learning method so that the bot can program itself every day to keep it accurate. That transparent information can assist the decision-making efficiency for investors, because sometimes the investors do not really know what they like. Sometimes they got some policy or criteria to screen investments, but when they make a decision, sometimes it's very intuitive. So, we need a tool to take care of the SMEs and startups and also the buyer side and learn about their behavior. Only behaviour reflects investment decisions.Q: Can you explain more about learning the behavior? Also, do you let investors set up their own preferences?A: The backbone of our platform is that we learn from behavior. So we collect the historical behavior of the investor. For example, I got a case study, which is a local investor. We analyzed hundreds of cases that she already invested, and we realized that 80% of her portfolio has had something to do with sustainable environment or helping women in society.We learn from that, and then we can see she is a social-impact investor. She never told us about it, she probably had never realized that she wanted to invest in impact investment. But now we learn from that behavior. And then we suggest a list of companies heavy with social enterprises. We also have the features that investor can customize. But at the end of the day with the tons of data, it's better to let the AI bot do the job. Investors can set their customization, but that may not be necessary. But it's also the options they may choose.Q: So right now, your focus is still on Vietnam. Do you have plans for future expansions?A: Yes, we have focused on Vietnam. And our next strategy is to open this platgofrm for European investors. We also have plans for expansions in Southeast Asia by the end of 2021, so we can pull in more investors in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Now we have some Indonesian SMEs on our platform and some from India. In 2022, if it goes smoothly, we hope to introduce the financial market, where we can introduce more options for investors. For example, investors currently can only invest in equity, like they can buy equity from SMEs, but in 2022 we hope that we can offer convertible notes, which means they can give loans to the SMEs and can convert to equity if the KPI do not match. Or we can create a kind of lending services from investors for SMEs with a suitable interest rate. But for that we will focus on Asia Pacific, because the SMEs in Vietnam may be not as many as those in the whole region; it's true also in terms of the number of investors. Especially the investors in Vietnam mainly are the government and some big corporate venture capital funds; there aren't many real investors with huge amounts here yet. The startup ecosystem here is: within more than 110 active funds, Vietnamese investors contribute 25%, another 25% from Singapore, and 17% from the US. In the future the numbers of European, Korean and Chinese VC will rise.On the other hand, we also see the importance of converting the individual traditional investor to venture investment, so that they can have more investment options with more risks and more rewards. This market helps us to scale, especially when we focus on Asia Pacific. So we must focus more on Asia Pacific in the next three to five years for enough volume of the market.Q: I see. So the SMEs you're referring to is not only the startups, you mean they can also be on the investor side?A: Yes, the SMEs mean those we connect from both sides and we work with as a platform - we work with stakeholders and investors. SMEs do not mean only startups. Startups are just a portion of it. We also aim at SMEs that can or want to integrate innovations into what they do, and SMEs that need funding. Even though they are traditional, they know that they want to have new ways of business, which we can help. So, the whole system is for small and medium enterprises, not only startups.Q: I suppose there are many hidden champions - which may be family businesses, but are very competitive in their technologies - that could be discovered by your platform. Is that your purpose of including SMEs which are not startups into your platform?A: Yes. Because for an economy like Vietnam, we don't have many tech firms yet, and we have more traditional enterprises. We need kind of synergies of both. It's not enough to have startups only; we have SMEs that know how to do business with a brand, have know-how, or need funds to grow their businesses. Many startups are good at technology, know about innovation, young, strong, but do not have enough experience in the market. So we want the whole ecosystem that can create synergies for themselves.Q: What is Vietnam's startup landscape right now? And how can both sides create synergy to optimize the value of collaboration?A: The Vietnamese startup ecosystem is quite young and has a lot of potential. Back in 2008, American firms like IDG venture invested in Vietnamese ICT companies, but they invested in software companies mostly. But now Samsung and Philips have set up factories here, and later this year Apple will also be investing here. I must say that this is the time of doing technology business. The government has encouraged this a lot; they put it into the Five-Year Economic Plan. And what Vietnam has now is the capability to make software, and capability of using some designs for hardware and mass production. But in the next 10 to 15 years, I would say that Vietnam will have the ability to design the hardware, semiconductor, and similar stuff. So, invest now; we know these businesses will bear fruit in the next five or 10 years. And the startup ecosystem will be crowded very soon, because after Vietnam and EU signed the Free Trade Agreement, European VCs are now aware of this market and will want to jump on the bandwagon here, like Japan. The Japanese also have VCs around here. They have some tractions in this market. So, as I will say this is the right time for investors to get into the market. And as an investor, we can consider Vietnam as a player with the ability of creating high value products, not just a market with a huge population. A population of more than 90 million is remarkable, so there is great potential that will materialize in the next five or 10 years.Q: Can you talk more about Vietnam's design capability?A: We're talking about the next 10 to 15 years. In the case of eSilicon (which designs and manufactures digital CMOS and finFET ASICs chips), they are based in Silicon Valley, but 80% of their engineers are Vietnamese. And they have managed to sell the company at US$216 million to Inphi. They hire Vietnamese engineers for design work and then they send those engineers to Silicon Valley to work for the mother company. I believe that in the next 10 to 15 years, when these engineers want to return and contribute to Vietnam, that is the right time for a wave of hardware creation and production.And there's a company that we work with - Akselos.About 90% of their engineers are Vietnamese. It is an Internet of Things (IoT) company that creates the world's fastest and most advanced engineering simulation technology. So normally, if you have a failed wind turbine in the sea, it will take more than three weeks to send the engineer up, take it down, and then fix it.Akselos has a solution, which takes just three hours: they can detect everything that happened via sensor data, and send the engineers up to fix it. So Akselos has US$10 million from Shell as a grant. And that's a very interesting case about a Vietnamese engineers that can work for a global firm. So I believe in the human resources and entrepreneurial spirit, especially in the ability and the ambition of the founders. We can find good talent here. We don't have advanced technology yet, but we will in a very near future.Q: How can Taiwan and Vietnam work together to create synergy?A: In my opinion, let's have a look at the strengths and weaknesses. We must say that Taiwanese technology is remarkable in the world, everybody knows that. But there are limitations of the island. I seem similarities between Ireland, where I lived several years, and Taiwan. In Ireland, they just have five million people. But Ireland has great industry, so we invested in the technology companies located in the Silicon Dock in Dublin, continental Europe and America.And investment will be the key for Taiwan, to reach new markets, to create more value and create more jobs. So I believe that investment in a growing country is what Taiwanese companies should have a look at. I believe that Taiwanese firms can invest in technology in Vietnam, Indonesia, in the ASEAN region. So people can see the value that Taiwanese company can add to those economies. The Taiwanese companies then can own some pieces of the bigger pie. Not limited to the Taiwanese pie but enjoy the pie of the whole region. What is Taiwan's advantage? I believe that is the advanced technology, especially hardware, and stable financial resources.This can be suitable for the ecosystem in Southeast Asia. The key is investment in technology around this region. And also, in the next five or 10 years, I believe that we can be a place to mobilize investments to other countries. Because the FTA that we have signed with other countries, there are hot money chasing after technology, so we can also mobilize the investments from Vietnam to some companies in Taiwan and create more jobs. For Taiwan, investing overseas is the key.Wiziin CEO Tien NguyenPhoto: Company

Weaker-than-expected sales for the iPhone 12 mini in the US and Europe reportedly has prompted Apple to have its manufacturing partner, Pegatron, reduce production for the smartphone model. Competition in the handset remains as intense as ever, and processor vendors are keen to secure orders from smartphine vendors on the one hand, and capacity support from the upstream, particularly from the semiconductor sector. Qualcomm reportedly has reached an agreement with TSMC for the foundry house's next-generation manufacturing processes. Many companies in the semiconductor supply chain have been running at full or tight capacity, including foundry house PSMC.Pegatron sees slowdown in orders for iPhone 12 mini: Pegatron has seen a slowdown in orders for the iPhone 12 mini as sales of the model in the US and Europe are affected negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry sources.Nvidia, Qualcomm reportedly seeking TSMC support for next-generation manufacturing processes: Nvidia and Qualcomm reportedly have already reached agreements with TSMC for capacity support from its next-generation manufacturing processes, and with orders from Intel, Apple and AMD, the Taiwanese foundry house is expected to enjoy growth from 2021 to 2025, according to sources from the semiconductor industry.Powerchip runs 12- and 8-inch fabs at nearly full utilization: Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) has run its 12- and 8-inch wafer fabs at nearly full capacity utilization, according to the Taiwan-based foundry.