Some consumer IC designers are concerned about possible competition from IDMs in Europe and the US, who they fear could be forced to join the supply of consumer chips to boost the utilization rates for their additional capacities to be commercialized in the next few years, but most IDMs still believe their new capacities may not be enough to meet strong chip demand for automotive, infrastructure, and IoT applications.

Memory makers such as Micron Technology and Kioxia are expected to see their business operations undermined by sharp declines in end-market demand for consumer electronics devices through the end of 2022, but the demand for memory chips is likely to recover earlier than that of logic ICs, according to sources from the memory supply chain.

Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia to have all its homegrown electric vehicle (EV) players, ranging from upstream to downstream, clustered within its borders. Even though the country has abundant resources, the most troubling is it doesn’t have provisions for EV manufacturing, including batteries, EVs, or even charging infrastructure, according to the country’s budget in 2022.