Taiwan’s domestic market is small but the export-oriented semiconductor industry actually depend heavily on the domestic environment. As TSMC CEO CC Wei has noted, the number of semiconductors in automobiles is increasing at a rate of 15% per year. What it really means is that there are huge opportunities and the key is whether you are competitive enough to gain portions of them.

The Biden administration plans to announce new restrictions on China’s access to US semiconductor technology, according to people with knowledge of the situation, an escalation of Washington’s efforts to stifle Beijing’s industrial ambitions and a risk to growth for the US$550 billion sector.

At the annual Samsung Foundry Forum held in San Jose, California on October 3, Samsung announced its plan to introduce the 2nm process in 2025, and 1.4nm process in 2027. In light of the growing demand from HPC and automobile sectors, Samsung said that it would also enhance its 3nm process for HPC applications, and build speciality technologies based on 4nm process for both HPC and auto applications.

Taiwan-based Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) has landed MEMS probe card orders from several major tier-1 international FPGA vendors, according to industry sources.