The 2025 SEMI-e Shenzhen International Semiconductor Exhibition and the Integrated Circuit Innovation Expo have concluded. The twin events drew a significant crowd, with 43,986 professional visitors in attendance. A total of 1,062 exhibitors displayed their latest technologies, underscoring the event’s importance to the global semiconductor sector.

The global artificial intelligence (AI) boom is not only driving demand for AI servers and AI data center hardware construction but also pushing high-voltage direct current (HVDC) to become the future mainstream in power supply due to the AI sector’s massive energy consumption. This shift is accelerating investments from power grids, heavy electrical equipment, and power supply manufacturers, while the technical and capital barriers are expected to trigger a new round of market shakeouts.

TSMC has donated several sets of used 12-inch chipmaking equipment to the government, which has had the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) under the National Institute of Applied Research (NIAR) receive them on its behalf. TSRI has selected a site on the campus of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) to build a 12-inch wafer fab where proof-of-concept and pilot lines will be installed using the equipment. The facility is expected to officially commence operations in 2028.