Taiwan’s IC designers have seen their deployments in automotive applications gradually paying off, but revenues generated from the segment can still hardly offset the ongoing declines in chip demand for consumer applications in the short term, according to industry sources.

The risk to the global economy comes from national debt crises. Before the COVID pandemic, there were many countries in poor financial helath, and the subsidies give during the pandemic will eventually come at a price. After the recent period of interest rate hikes by central banks, debt problems will follow. In the past two years, countries have injected as much as US$17 trillion in subsidies, and the side effects of China’s Belt and Road spending prior to the pandemic are starting to brew in countries with poor capital structures.

The global proportion of enterprises having adopted AI stands at 35% currently, increasing 4pp from 2021, according to an online sample survey of 7,502 enterprises around the world undertaken during March 30-April 12, 2022 by Morning Consult commissioned by IBM.

Outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies are crucial to the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. ASE Technology Holding leads the sector with endeavors in traditional and advanced packaging and advanced testing. The company was ranked 7th in 2021 revenue in the Asia IC50 released by DIGITIMES Asia, only a little behind Japan-based Kioxia.