Taiwanese policymakers have passed a law allowing chip companies to convert 25% of their annual R&D spending into tax credits. Bloomberg reportThis is part of an attempt to ensure that cutting-edge chip technology stays in Taiwan as other countries push incentives to strengthen their own supply chains.
“Taiwan is an important link in the global supply chain and a long-term reliable partner of international manufacturers, making Taiwan unique and irreplaceable,” said the Ministry of Economic Affairs. wrote in the releaseIt said the move was made “in the face of huge incentive measures proposed by the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.”
Taiwanese chip makers can also apply for a 5% tax credit on the annual cost of purchasing equipment for advanced nodes. (This equipment is some of the most expensive parts of upgrading a fab or building a new fab.) Bloomberg points out that earned credits can’t exceed his 50% of the company’s annual income tax. increase.
The measures were introduced late last year and are likely to come into force this year.
The US passed the CHIPS and Science Act in July to support domestic chip production. Since then, plans for a number of American fabs have surfaced, including Intel, which has spent more than $40 billion on his U.S. facilities in Arizona, Ohio and New Mexico. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) has unveiled his 5-nanometer capable fab near Phoenix in mid-2020. GlobalFoundries, Samsung and Texas Instruments are also planning to upgrade or set up new factories in the US. The Semiconductor Industry Association, an industry lobbying group, says the CHIPS Act attracted his $200 billion in private investment to the sector.
Overseas, Intel was planning a “megafab” in Magdeburg, Germany, and had received about $7.3 billion in funding from the European Chip Act. December, Intel reportedly pulled out of the ground Due to “difficult market conditions”.
While domestically manufacturing chips has long been considered critical to national security, the world has seen what happens when supply chains are backed up in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was. Mixed with geopolitical tensions, companies are looking to diversify their supply chains, and some of them seem capable of chasing money around the world.
