The US and China have been clearly in a standoff, sparring over tariffs and technologies. This has resulted in supply chain reshuffle for some industries. US president Joe Biden signed an executive order on February 24, 2021 mandating a review of critical product supply chains in the US with the aim of bringing manufacturing back the US and rebuilding localized supply chains. Taiwan-based manufacturers caught between the two giants may not afford to choose sides, but they can still find room for survival.Since 2017, the US Department of Commerce has implemented export control on more than 500 Chinese enterprises and rejected 34 Chinese acquisitions of US companies. The US Department of Justice has charged 63 individuals for espionage and participation in China's Operation Fox Hunt. The US Department of Defense has named 35 high-tech firms as entities owned by, controlled by, or affiliated with China's government, military, or defense industry. The US Department of the Treasury requires that US citizens must divest their holdings of Chinese military-affiliated companies by November 11, 2021. It also has sanctioned 231 Chinese individuals and entities, including 36 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.US and China are engaged in a tech warPhoto: Digitimes file photoPost-Tiananmen era and tech war eraWhat are implications of the US government's actions against China? Western countries slapped economic sanctions against China after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on democracy, hitting hard China's economy and society at that time. China had to undertake a series of reform measures to weather the crisis. China's economic growth registered at 2.3% in 2020, the lowest since the start of China's reform and opening up in 1977. It may seem that China sustained impact from the trade conflict, tech war and COVID-19. However, many research institutions expect China's economic growth to rebound to the range between 7.0% and 9.0% in 2021. This indicates that China's economy made up of immense manufacturing, finance, digital economy, real estate and service sectors still has the potential to maintain high growth, which is quite different from the weakness it experienced in 1989.China's GDP amounted to CNY101.5 trillion (US$15.89 trillion) in 2020. Despite falling short of the US GDP at US$21.4 trillion, China's efforts toward and investments into economic development and technological advances are not to be overlooked. China may still be on course to continuing high GDP growth. More data indicate that China will not easily be defeated by Western containment with its enormous scale. China's total imports and exports came to US$4.6463 trillion in 2020. Its foreign exchange reserves totaled US$3.2165 trillion. China has 62.64 million ounces of gold on reserve and owns US$1.054 trillion of US government bonds. According to Yifu Lin, dean of Institute of New Structural Economics, Peking University, China's economy is likely to surpass that of the US in a decade. It will get to a GDP per capita half that of the US and an economic scale twice that of the US in three decades. The US will then no longer have a technology stranglehold over China.The US cutting high-tech supply to China has indeed exerted impact to Chinese firms including Huawei and SMIC in the short term. However, China has a massive domestic market and a huge number of foreign firms running production bases in the country. More importantly, it has a strong determination to drive independent innovations. It is therefore addressing challenges from the outside world with "internal circulation" and "independent technology innovation" initiatives and actively undertaking regional development plans and Pilot Free Trade Zone projects including Hainan Free Trade Port, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Integrated Regional Development of Yangtze River Delta.On top of that, China is also promoting the development of key industrial parks in State-Level New Areas and Industrial Demonstration Zones in the central, western and northeastern provinces with an aim to enhance the country's ability to absorb the impact from manufacturers moving production out of China. It is unlikely a smart move for overseas-funded and Taiwan-based enterprises to completely pull out of China. For example, the firms that have relocated some of their production bases to India in view of the US-China trade conflict are seeing impacts from the recent surge in COVID infections in India.G2 battling for tech supremacyThe US is wary of China's rise mainly because China has discovered the secret behind the success of the US - building national strength by investing in fundamental scientific research. By doing the same, China will be able to not only make use of technologies but also develop technologies. Some Chinese enterprises, both private and state-funded, may have indeed gained access to technologies through improper means, infringing on Western companies' intellectual property (IP) rights. If the US, Europe and Japan are to completely stop China from copying their products or infringing on their IP rights, China will have no choice but to expediate its independent technology development. Ancient China was once a world leader in science and technology, and modern China could become a world leader again.China's Department of the Treasury, State Taxation Administration, National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly announced preferential tax policies for integrated chip makers and software enterprises at year-end 2020. IC makers producing semiconductors of 28nm and under are exempt from income tax for 10 years. Those producing 65nm and under semiconductors are exempt from income tax for five years and enjoy a preferential 25% tax rate for the following five years. The National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce released Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, which contains a total of 1,235 items, with a focus on driving foreign investments into key technologies related to advanced manufacturing and modern service industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, IC and blockchain.China R&D expensesTotal expensesCNY2442.6 bAs a proportion of GDP2.4%R&D typeBasic research5.5%Applications11.%Tech83.3%ExecutorsEnterprises77.4%Government13.7%Academic7.4%Note: GDP figure from 2020; breakdown numbers as of 2018 Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, Compiled by Digitimes, May 2021US R$D expensesTotal expensesUS$656 bAs a proportion of GDP2.94%R&D typeBasic research16.6%Applications19.2%Tech64.1%ExecutorsEnterprises70.3%Government22.1%Academic3.4%Non-profit organization4.1%Note: Total R&D expenses for 2019; breakdown numbers based on 2018 expensesSource: NSF, compiled by Digitimes, May 2021As a matter of fact, China's research and development spending climbed from CNY1.42 trillion in 2015 to CNY2.44 trillion in 2019 and its basic research funding nearly doubled. According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China moved up from No. 29 in 2015 to No. 14 in 2020 mainly as a result of its leaping advances in basic research and applied research. Not only has China made progress in quantum information science, FeSe, stem cells and synthetic biology, but it is also endeavoring toward AI chips, operating systems, new energy vehicles and next-generation display technology.China's growing scientific research strength has given rise to more than 200,000 small and medium tech businesses as well as high-tech corporations in the country. There are 173 high-tech companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board. The startup scene in China is also thriving with burgeoning makerspaces, tech business incubators, accelerators and university science parks. They don't feel the squeeze the US is putting on China. China's national science and technology programs and key laboratories are backed by its immense research funding. They are actively recruiting tech talent from abroad by rolling out new work permit and visa application systems for foreigners and conferring the ownerships or rights of long-term use of job-related scientific and technological achievements on scientific researchers.The world's factory vs the world's policeChina's top priority is to build up a strong foundation for high-tech innovations. This is the only way to counter the tech blockade by the West. It is also the motive behind China's 10-year action plan for basic research starting 2021. The aim is to enhance innovation and planning capabilities and inspire creativity. China will not lag behind Taiwan in basic scientific research. In fact, it stands a chance of overtaking the US in certain areas.Taiwan-based vendors rely heavily on China to do the processing and manufacturing for their products which are then sold across the globe. Taiwan-based vendors supplying electronics components, computers, electronics and optical devices mostly set up operation bases in central, south, southwest and east China. Smartphones produced by Taiwan-based vendors on OEM basis in China and exported to the US are virtually all iPhones. Unless they are required by their customers or they have no other choice, Taiwan-based vendors are unlikely to cease their China production and business in haste.On top of that, products assembled in China including smartphones, notebook computers and tablets need upstream and midstream components supplied from Taiwan. Increasing demand from China's assembly business actually spurs Taiwan's exports of electronics components, ICT products and production machinery. Will production shift out of China to avoid tariffs shake China's status as the world's factory? If the anwer is yes, what are the impacts to China? China has established advantages in supply chains and it will not be easily replaced by other countries including ASEAN member states, India and Mexico. Even the maturing electronics supply chain in ASEAN countries can only satisfy part of the world's demand and can hardly take over China. Vendors that leave China will lose their grasp on China's upstream and downstream supply chain and China's consumer market dynamics. They will miss out on the opportunity should China's economy really surpass that of the US 10 years from now.As the word's police, the US does not want to see a strong China dictating world order, especially in technology and industry where it is leader. It is under the pressure of being overtaken by China. That is why the Biden administration proposed the US$2.3 trillion American Job Plan to revitalize semiconductor, electric vehicle (EV), new energy and broadband industries and cutting-edge technology development.China has not seen large-scale supply chain relocation out of the country since the COVID-19 outbreak. Academic researchers think this is due to difficulties in shifting capital, infrastructure and labor, in addition to new supply chain adjustments and regulation compliance issues to be addressed when moving operation to another region. To manufacturers, relocation introduces new uncertainties, not to mention cost increases.Taiwan, as OEM for multinational brands and upstream component and intermediate goods supplier to assemblers in China, must increase its research and development spending while making efforts to incubate and retain professionals. By doing so, Taiwan's hardware component manufacturing process will keep advancing and the Taiwan industry can thereby survive and thrive.

As the modern smart connected devices are getting smaller, thinner, and supporting more stringent protocols such as 5G, GPS, UWB, BLE, and Wi-Fi 6, they need high-performance timing solutions that are accurate, scalable and able to fully integrate with electronics chips; however, it's something that traditional quartz timing is practically unable to do.With an aim to transform the almost 100-year-old quartz-based timing market, Canada-based Stathera, Inc. has developed innovative MEMS-based solutions to address these unmet requirements for wearable, IoT, smartphone and other connected devices.George Xereas, Co-founder & CEO of Stathera, explained that the number of smart, connected devices are expected to surpass 74 billion by 2025, and as with every electronic device, they need at least one MHz frequency reference to support telecommunications (e.g. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi) and one kHz frequency reference to serves as a the Real-Time-Clock (RTC) or support stand-by modes.But quartz-based oscillators provide only a single MHz or kHz output, requiring at least 2 oscillators per system, which consumes significant PCB area and increase BOM cost.Also, quartz oscillators are not CMOS compatible, and cannot scale or be integrated on-chip. In addition, their accuracy and performance are severely affected by environmental factors including temperature, humidity, vibration and shock. This results in premature failure, shorter battery life, and higher system cost.In order to solve these problems, "our world's first, true-dual-output MEMS timing solution provides both the MHz and kHz output from a single resonator", stressed Xereas. "This enables the replacement of two legacy oscillators allowing for the simplification of system design, reduction of power consumption, reduction in printed-circuit-board (PCB) area, reduction in bill-of-materials (BOM) and reduction in system cost."In a wearable application against typical quartz-timing for example, Stathera's oscillator solution can provide 40x more resistance to shock and vibration, 90% reduction in PCB board-space, and 80% reduction in the associated BOM count."When you couple this with the reduction in cost, lower current consumption, and longer battery life, you will find that Stathera's product offering brings significant benefits to both the customer and their system", Xereas said.At present, Stathera is in the process of commercializing its MEMS-based timing products, and the 1st generation of devices are under development. Meanwhile, the company has completed the R&D phase and validated the MEMS performance with multiple R&D builds, and the companion ASIC is currently being developed.Speaking of Taiwan, Xereas pointed out that Taiwan is a vital hub for hardware electronic devices. "We aim to develop partnerships and secure design-in opportunities with local customers (OEMs and ODMs), that are interested in adopting our dual-output MHz and kHz MEMS oscillators into their system designs."The company is also interested in collaborating with local IC and reference design manufacturers on next-generation timing specification for their chips to ensure next generation OEM & market requirements are met, and towards SoC integration of Stathera's embedded MEMS resonator. In addition, channel partners and strategic investment partners are also the possibilities that they are looking for.George Xereas, Co-founder & CEO of StatheraPhoto: Company

Apple's supply chain is gearing up for the upcoming iPhones. Apple is expected to adopt flexible AMOLED for all of its next-generation iPhones to be launched later this year and will outpace Samsung to become the top buyer of AMOLED smartphone displays this year. TSMC has kicked off production for the A15 processors. Meanwhile, chip shortages are expected to undermine server production at ODMs through the end of the year.Apple to outpace Samsung as top buyer of smartphone AMOLED displays: Apple is expected to unseat Samsung Electronics as the largest buyer of AMOLED displays for smartphones in 2021, as new iPhones for the year reportedly will all adopt flexible AMOLED screens, pushing up the penetration of such displays in iPhone devices to around 80%, according to industry sources.TSMC kicking off production for new iPhone chips: TSMC has kicked off production for Apple's next-generation iPhone processor dubbed A15, and will see demand for the chip surpass that for its predecessor last year in scale, according to industry sources.Server ODMs see shipments disrupted by chip shortages: Server ODMs have seen their shipments disrupted by the shortages of power management ICs, network switches, and other chips and components, which are unlikely to ease until the end of this year, according to industry sources.

In view of intensifying US-China confrontation and Taiwan actively promoting its New Southbound Policy, many Taiwan-based suppliers intend to meet increasing capacity demand by relocating manufacturing to Southeast Asia and building new industrial clusters there to tap the demographic and geographic advantages as well as rapidly growing market demand in the region. They look to replicate their experiences in China and make Southeast Asia the next world factory that will support rising needs as the global supply chain makes transitions to accommodate "G2" (US vs China) developments. Vietnam and Thailand, neighboring China, will be Taiwan-based suppliers' first choices for their move into Southeast Asia, followed by Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They will not include Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia in their consideration due to political instability in those countries unless they have no other choices.Some suppliers note that manufacturers choose to build new production bases in Vietnam and Thailand in part for their transport infrastructure. Being able to transport goods via their road networks will make up for the incomplete supply chain ecosystems in Vietnam or Thailand.The shift to regional manufacturing has given rise to the new trend - short supply chains. The supply chains in Vietnam and Thailand are near completion after years of effort. Furthermore, component suppliers' added demand in recent years are largely for automotive and home appliance parts, rather than ICT devices and applications, which allows them to better connect with Thailand's local industry development. Vietnam and Thailand are therefore the ideal choices for Taiwan-based suppliers foraying into Southeast Asia.Recent macro-environment changes are driving an increasing number of suppliers to invest in Vietnam. This is beginning to spur a rise in land costs and an imbalance in labor supply and demand, according to industry observers. In particular, small- and medium-sized suppliers not only face difficulty in land acquisition but also have to compete for human resources with large enterprises that can offer more attractive compensations and benefits such as Samsung Electronics and Foxconn. Suppliers planning to set up operation in Vietnam need to take a lot of factors into consideration.Thailand will be more suitable for some small- and medium-sized suppliers as it has a substantial number of migrant workers that can provide a relatively more stable labor supply. Labor turnover has also improved thanks to its recent economic developments. The Thai government has been offering incentives to drive developments in motor vehicle and electric vehicle (EV) parts as well as EV batteries, which overlap with the areas Taiwan-based manufacturers are actively expanding into. This is another factor that makes Thailand appealing to Taiwan-based suppliers.Many suppliers indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them to put off or suspend their plans to move into Southeast Asia. When they strategize about building new production bases in Southeast Asia, aside from customer requirements and supply chain considerations, they should also gain an understanding of what preferential treatments and investment incentives Southeast Asian governments may be putting forward to attract manufacturers looking to set up production outside of China as there are all kinds of different offers on the table, industry observers say.

Taiwan-based networking device assemblers continue to relocate their production lines from China back to Taiwan or to Southeast Asia, despite a recent surge in COVID-19 infections locally.James Wang, president of network communication equipment provider Sercomm, once noted that China had been rivalless until the US stepped up countermeasures, disrupting China's economic scale.Supply chains would not be relocating production out of China if it were not for the US-China trade war, and US president Joe Biden is not reversing the direction that his predecessor Donald Trump had set.Taiwan-based network communication equipment providers are of a smaller scale and can act more swiftly in response to changes. When the US-China trade conflict spread to the network communication equipment sector in 2018, suppliers flocked to Taiwan and Southeast Asia to set up production bases. According to Gemtek chairman Howard Chen, three months after the company made the decision, new production facilities were in place. Chen quipped that it was the first time he felt like a big spender. This also reflected how much pressure network communication equipment providers came under in the face of the trade war tariffs.Apart from Taiwan, Vietnam is the most important production hub to network communication equipment providers, including Gemtek, Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC), Arcadyan and Hitron. Among them, WNC and Arcadyan have plans to build their second facilities in addition to their current ones in Vietnam, with the new capaacity scheduled to be up and running in the second half of 2021. The new production lines will contribute to growth in the share of their capacity outside of China.According to WNC chairman Haydn Hsieh, the company's second facility in Vietnam is about 90% complete. Installation of the production lines is scheduled to start in June and they are expected to be churning out products in the third quarter of this year. WNC already has customers placing orders specifically for products to be manufactured at the new facility. WNC's Vietnam capacity will ramp up at the highest speed over the next six to 12 months and the share among WNC's total capacity will grow from 10-15% at present to 20-25% by early 2022.Aside from its second facility in Vietnam, which will begin production in the second half of 2021, WNC's second plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) is also under construction, with equipment installation planned for the second quarter of 2022 and production to begin in the third quarter. By then, WNC will have relatively equal proportions of capacity in Vietnam, Kunshan (China) and Taiwan. With the new facilities up and running, WNC's capacity utilization will be much better in the first quarter of 2022, which will help optimize its cost structure. Arcadyan is also building its second facility, which will add to its capacity starting the fourth quarter of this year. According to Arcadyan, the construction remains on schedule despite the recent increase in COVID-19 cases. Arcadyan's new facility is planned with three times the capacity of its first plant in Vietnam. Its China capacity will not decrease as a result of the production expansion in Vietnam so the ratio between its China and Vietnam capacity will change from 70:30 to 50:50 by year-end 2021.In contrast to network communication equipment providers that are actively expanding capacity in Vietnam, notebook PC manufacturers that do not sustain pressure from heavier import tariffs have maintained their wait-and-see attitude since the late stage of Trump's term. They said that when the US-China trade conflict was escalating in 2019, notebook PC manufacturers were urged by customers to respond. They all prepared contingency plans to set up production bases in Southeast Asia or Taiwan. However, their plans remain on paper to this day.Quanta, Compal, Wistron and Inventec all have assembly lines in Taiwan. Some of the notebook PCs Compal and Inventec supply to their US customers are assembled in Taiwan. They both had plans to expand their capacity in Taiwan in 2019 but their customers did not ramp up their orders. Quanta had its Linkou, northern Taiwan plant ready while Wistron was prepared to start production in the Philippines. Neither of them have proceeded to volume production.Compal's Vietnam factory is the only one that is in operation outside of Taiwan, rolling out products for a US customer that keeps requesting for additional capacity but not at a rate as fast as what the customer had proposed earlier.According to the manufacturers, notebook PCs sell at razor-thin profit margins and include more than 1,000 components, making it difficult to shift production. Their customers mostly choose to cope with changes by staying put to avoid running up costs.

X-ray imaging has existed for more than 120 years, but a Canada-based start-up, KA Imaging Inc, is trying to be a game changer for the long-established market. With the world's first portable dual-energy detector, the company aims to revolutionize the X-ray market and realize its vision of "Innovative X-ray everywhere"."It's the first time that X-ray imaging technology has achieved such a significant advance," Amol Karnick, CEO of KA Imaging, said.He explained that dual-energy X-ray works with two different types of energies inside the X-ray: one that is good at highlighting the soft tissue, and another that is good for the bones. By recovering some of the spectral information that is lost in conventional radiography, the radiologist can access two extra images: bone and soft tissue.Though dual-energy imaging is not new, the existing technology has an intrinsic problem: motion artifacts. "Our engineers were able to solve the problem by creating a unique triple-layered detector, allowing the spectral separation to take place inside the detector. Therefore, we only use one X-ray exposure to achieve dual-energy X-ray with no motion artifact.""Another important thing is that the detector was designed with a universal standard size, so that it can be used in any existing X-ray system, whether fixed, portable, or mobile," Karnick said.With these breakthroughs, KA Imaging has made portable, affordable, and more accurate X-ray machines possible.The company's product, Reveal 35C, has been approved by the United Stated and Canada. There are currently two clinical trials being conducted in Canada: one for lung cancer and one for detecting pneumonia (including COVID-19), both with promising initial results."For patients who cannot be moved, Reveal can provide essential care diagnostics. Three images allow doctors with varying abilities to make quick and accurate diagnoses," Karnick explained. "In addition, the detector can make a difference in rural or remote areas where the population does not have access to CTs. Studies also show that the high sensitivity of dual energy can detect many diseases earlier, allowing better outcomes for both patients and hospitals."KA Imaging is now partnering with key opinion leaders in clinical trials for different clinical use cases to present proven results of its technology. Meanwhile, in order to expand the market, it provides a flexible business model of Hardware as a Service in addition to capital purchase with service.With more than 21 million X-ray scans performed every year in Taiwan, the company is now looking for opportunities here. "Taiwan's install base is similar to that of Canada, and Taiwan is also a center of cutting-edge medical technology, so absorbing Reveal 35C as part of its system is only natural. One of KA imaging's current investors and our manufacturer is Innolux, a Taiwanese company. KA has established a strong relationship to Taiwan.""The applications are many. For example, statistics show pneumonia as the second leading cause of deaths in Taiwan, a case study for dual energy that is already proven," said he. "We are seeking distributors and clinical partners, hoping to contribute to improving quality of care for the Taiwanese population."Canada-based startup KA Imaging CEO, Amol KarnickPhoto: Company

Pure-play foundry houses are requiring fabless chip vendors to prepay for the capacity bookings or to co-fund their capacity expansion projects. One of such cases is Qualcomm striking a six-year deal UMC in order to secure foundry support. Supply in the semiconductor sector is expected to remain tight in the foreseeable future, with IC substrate supply unlikely to see major improvements until late 2021 or 2022.Pure-play foundries expanding capacity with prepayments from clients: TSMC and other Taiwan-based pure-play foundries intend to carry out their capacity expansion projects cautiously and progressively to avoid the risk of overcapacity.Qualcomm strikes long-term deal with UMC, sources say: Qualcomm is believed to have struck a long-term deal with United Microelectronics (UMC) under which the pure-play foundry will provide capacity support for the chip vendor over six years, according to industry sources.IC substrate supply to stay constrained in 2021-2022: The global supply of IC substrates will not see major inprovement until late 2021 or 2022 when Taiwan-based suppliers' additional capacity comes online, according to industry sources.

Memory prices have been rising, and contract quotes for DRAM and NAND flash are expected to see double-digit increases in the third quarter of 2021. Backend service providers are also looking to raise fees in the third quarter to reflect rising material costs. In the handset market, sales in China and India may be weak, but the makers in the handset supply chain are still optimistic about the market in the second half of 2021.Memory contract prices to see double-digit gains in 3Q21: DRAM and NAND flash memory contract prices are set to register double-digit increases in the third quarter of 2021, according to industry sources.OSATs may further hike service quotes in 3Q21: Taiwan OASTs are expected to enforce a new round of quote hikes in the third quarter of the year to reflect ever-rising prices for raw materials particularly for QFN wire-bonding process, according to industry sources.Handset supply chain makers remain optimistic about 2H21: Taiwan-based upstream and downstream handset supply chain makers have remained optimistic about their business outlook for the third quarter of 2021 despite a slew of negative developments, including shortages of components, tight capacity, and rising material prices.

Qualcomm has just launched its Snapdragon 778G made using TSMC's 6nm process. It is expected to be more popular among midrange smartphones because of its higher price-performance ratio than the 5nm-made 780G series. Taiwan-based backend houses are now gearing up for the latest Qualcomm mobile SoC. In the car industry, business opportunities for smat auto lights are rapidly emerging, and Taiwan has a good chance of playing a major role in the sector, according the CEO of Silicon Application Corp (SAC).New Qualcomm 5G SoC built using TSMC 6nm process: Qualcomm's just-unveiled Snapdragon 778G chipset with integrated X52 5G modem is manufactured using TSMC's 6nm process technology, and is designed mainly for midrange 5G-capable Android smartphones, according to industry sources in Taiwan.Backend houses gearing up for new orders from Qualcomm: Taiwan's leading OSAT ASE Technology and its affiliate Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) reportedly will offer backend services for Qualcomm's newly-released Snapdragon 778G 5G mobile SoC targeting midrange 5G Android smartphones, and they are gearing up for a ramp-up in orders from the US chip vendor, according to industry sources.Taiwan at last mile to smart auto light market, says SAC CEO: Global business opportunities for smart auto lights are emerging rapidly, and Taiwan stands a good chance to benefit significantly as a major supply source if the semiconductor, optics and AI software sectors can be effectively integrated, according to Jimmy Chen, CEO of Silicon Application Corp (SAC) Group.

Combined revenue of Taiwan's top-3 pure-play foundries are expected to grow 2% sequentially to US$15.19 billion in the second quarter of 2021, according to Digitimes Research.Combined revenue of TSMC, United Microelectronics (UMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) came to about US$14.9 billion in the first quarter of 2021, up 2.2% on quarter and hitting a record high, Digitimes Research indicated.Digitimes Research credited the particularly strong first and second quarters this year to continued strong IC demand for notebooks and other devices enabling remote work and education, and other stay-at-home activities.Digitimes Research forecasts that Taiwan's top-3 foundries will see their combined revenue reach US$63.1 billion in 2021, a nearly 20% rise from its previous estimated US$61.7 billion.