As visitors return to Taipei’s exhibition halls for the semiconductor industry’s annual event, Semicon Taiwan 2022, browsing as usual through the hundreds of exhibitors specialized in areas from material to software, it is hard to notice the underlying changes unfolding across the global chip industry at the first glance. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic lingers on, the US-China technology war intensifies, all the while real guns are fired 8,000 kilometers away in Ukraine. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, where geopolitical fault lines meet, is certainly feeling the seismic waves unleashed by global supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, mounting sanctions and an emerging structural change marked by a paradoxical mix of overabundance and shortage.

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai) has returned as the majority stake owner of Sharp after an indirect investment in the Japanese firm recently made by an the Taiwanese EMS giant’s affiliate.

With PC sales set to disappoint, PC suppliers may have to monitor their inventories and cash flow management in the second half of 2022, according to industry sources.

Touch solution provider General Interface Solution (GIS) has made efforts to diversify its target markets to include interactive display systems, automotive, and the metaverse.