Industry sources indicate that new fabs planned or built for auto chips will range from 5nm to 28nm in process nodes. The TSMC fab in Kumamoto, Japan, co-invested by Sony, Denso and Honda, cover nodes between 10nm to 20nm, for example.

Not long ago, I was a guest speaker at an Alibaba startup forum sharing my entrepreneurial experience with Taiwan’s young generation of entrepreneurs. I was curious about the purpose of Alibaba organizing startup businesses in Taiwan. And then, after reading “Hidden Champions: Ascent and Transformation,” I got a better understanding. According to DIGITIMES’ survey, 77% of Taiwan’s startups that have the opportunity to go public want to raise capital abroad, with the US, China and Japan in the top three of their destinations.

Taiwan-based international AI company iKala has appointed Ryuji Tsuchiya as its Japan branch’s GM. The listings on its influencer data platform KOL Radar will massively expand to build Asia’s largest influencer database. According to iKala co-founder Sega Cheng, it will be more active in exploring the Japanese market. The goal is to achieve annual revenue growth of over ten times in 2023.

In a meeting with analysts and media, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai pointed out that the IC design house will concentrate investment on three focuses in the future, namely high performance, high energy efficiency and high internet speed. MediaTek’s R&D expenditures amount to US$4 billion in 2022.