Huawei continues to strengthen its IC design operations, including subsidiary HiSilicon, still playing an important role in China's homegrown IC design development.

Though taken aback by Tesla announcing a 75% cut in SiC demand for its future vehicles, China's SiC substrate suppliers including SICC and Tony Electronic have indicated their production remains normal with little impact from the announcement.

In the semiconductor industry, talent has always been a persistent topic. The competition for high-level semiconductor talent among countries has never stopped. In recent years, with western countries putting out semiconductor policies and plans one after another and wafer fabs being built on large scales in the US, Europe, and Japan, the talent competition has only gotten more fierce.

LED chipmaker Ennostar expects sales to start picking up in the second quarter of 2023, from the likely lowest level of the year in the first quarter when sales are tamed by off-peak seasonality.

In the face of geopolitical uncertainty, Taiwan-based panel manufacturers, such as AUO and Innolux, are diversifying their manufacturing bases.

LCD panel makers remain cautious about ramping up the utilization rates of their LCD fabs, although TV panel prices have begun bouncing up, and quotes for IT applications show signs of recovery.

Amid unfavorable market conditions, brand PC vendors are focusing on ways to maximize limited resources instead of boldly innovating, according to industry observers. As a result, consumers are less likely to see new products that wow in 2023.

The supply chain is bracing for the fallout of the blacklisting of China-based server manufacturer Inspur Group by the US Department of Commerce on March 3.

Notebook ODMs will soon see their shipments bottom out and recover from the second quarter, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

As China-based telecom equipment suppliers face growing skepticism in Western countries, Germany is reportedly considering forbidding telecom operators from using components from Huawei and ZTE.

Taiwanese makers should strive to get a head start in becoming key players in the supply chain of laser communication -- seen as a key space technology for the future -- by taking advantage of their strong capability of making components, according to a venture capitalist.

Demand for Wi-Fi main chips is expected to resume growth starting the second quarter and benefit related Taiwan-based chip designers including MediaTek, Realtek, and Richwave, according to sources from the upstream supply chain, who added that procurement orders from Europe and the US will be the key growth driver.