A preliminary meeting of the US-led Chip 4 group, attended by representatives from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US, took place last week after a year of preparation. Participants agreed that such partnerships are necessary to build a resilient chip supply chain. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s vice economy minister told reporters that the country would use the group to protect the interests of the local semiconductor industry. Taiwan also plans to prevent Taiwanese chips from being used to build up China’s military power.
The so-called Chip 4 Alliance, comprising the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, aims to secure global semiconductor supply chains and synchronize policies, grants and joint research and development (R&D) projects. Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies work closely with US companies and universities. Japan also supplies important raw materials to countries in the region.
But beyond this, Asian chip makers are cooperating with each other as companies like Kioxia, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, TSMC, and UMC compete with each other very hard and understandably don’t want to share their trade secrets. rarely do.
The three Asian countries and their allies to develop next-generation semiconductor technologies, promote cooperation, build resilient chip supply chains, and increase competitiveness with China’s growing semiconductor capabilities. The United States must somehow cooperate despite various controversies.
“The semiconductor industry is a globally collaborative industry,” said Chen Chern-chyi, Taiwan’s vice minister of economy. Nikkei“Manufacturing equipment is mainly from Europe and the United States, raw materials from Japan, manufacturing technology from Taiwan, [South] Korea. […] This therefore requires collaboration to form a highly resilient supply chain. ”
Taiwan wants to ensure a stable supply of raw materials from Japan, but it doesn’t necessarily want to rebuild Japan’s semiconductor industry so that it can produce its own chips using cutting-edge process technology. do not have.
“We use it [Chip 4] It is a platform for us to strive to protect our company’s interests,” said the deputy minister. Reuters.
But Taiwan and South Korea probably have more pressing issues. China is the largest trading partner for both countries, and Chinese chip designers are very important customers for TSMC and Samsung Foundry. Bolstering China’s military power is clearly not in Taiwan’s interest, but TSMC once produced chips for Chinese companies like his Phytium that have ties to the Chinese government and military.
The deputy minister told reporters that using third parties to develop advanced processors for companies such as Phytium would also prevent China from accessing cutting-edge chips.
“Regarding national security, we will take measures such as protecting trade secrets, protecting key national key technologies, protecting talents, and preventing illegal poaching,” reported Cheng. bloomberg“When we find a loophole, we close it.”
