Column: How chip value spillover is redefining Taiwan’s economic and industrial trajectory

I describe the close integration of Taiwan’s semiconductor and electronics industries as the spillover of chip economic value. In earlier phases of the industry, economic value creation in electronic systems was highly concentrated at the chip level. Advancing process nodes alone was sufficient to capture most of the value. That model no longer holds. Today, improvements in manufacturing technology must propagate beyond wafer fabrication to packaging, testing, and ultimately system-level integration to translate into tradable economic value.

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Why can’t tech giants escape China’s smartphone production grip?

Global technology companies, including Google, are increasingly shifting new product introduction (NPI) stages away from China to reduce geopolitical risks, with recent reports indicating Google has begun relocating NPI for its premium smartphones to Vietnam. Industry insiders note initial progress but emphasize significant structural hurdles in this complex transition.

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Toppan keeps legal options open for Giantplus Technology’s share transfer dispute

Giantplus Technology, which focuses on small- and medium-sized panels, recently faced a management rights dispute. The largest shareholder, Japan’s Toppan Holdings, had originally agreed with JuYi Investment to transfer 53.1% of Giantplus Technology’s shares in two phases. However, the second phase of the transaction has stalled, and reports indicate that Toppan does not rule out resolving the matter through legal channels.

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ASML orders beat expectations as company plans 1,700 layoffs

ASML reported stronger-than-expected bookings in the fourth quarter of 2025 as customers stepped up investment in artificial intelligence chipmaking capacity, according to Reuters. The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker said fourth-quarter bookings reached EUR13.2 billion (US$15.8 billion), more than double the EUR5.4 billion recorded in the previous quarter and well above analyst expectations of EUR6.32 billion, based on data from Visible Alpha.

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Phison’s Pascari SSDs power world’s first lunar data center, set new reliability benchmark

Taiwan’s leading NAND controller and storage solution provider, Phison Electronics Corp., recently announced that its enterprise SSD brand Pascari has partnered with US space data company Lonestar Data Holdings on the award-winning Freedom Mission, a milestone project highlighting the rising strategic importance of secure and resilient data storage in the AI era.

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MetaX revenue more than doubles to US$230 million as losses narrow

China’s GPU developer MetaX reported strong revenue growth for fiscal 2025, driven by rising demand for domestically produced AI chips. In a preliminary earnings release on January 27, 2026, the Shanghai-based company said revenue is expected to reach CNY1.6 billion (US$230 million) to CNY1.7 billion, up from CNY743 million a year earlier, a year-over-year increase of 115% to 129%.

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ASML posts record 2025 results on surging orders

ASML Holding NV (ASML) reported record financial results for 2025, supported by a significant rebound in fourth-quarter bookings as semiconductor manufacturers increased investments in artificial intelligence chipmaking. The Dutch lithography equipment maker posted total net sales of EUR32.7 billion (US$39.2 billion) for the year, with net income reaching EUR9.6 billion.

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