In recent years, with the increasing attention paid by major countries and regions around the world such as China, the United States, Europe, and Japan to the semiconductor manufacturing industry, it has driven an investment boom in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. According to SemiEngineering's statistics, the global semiconductor manufacturing related fields (including wafer manufacturing, packaging, testing, equipment and materials, etc.) attracted a large amount of funds in 2023, with over 100 investments. In addition to the United States, Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, China, the European Union, Japan and other places, India and Malaysia have also won the favor of many semiconductor manufacturers with their cheap labor costs and support from local governments. Looking ahead, as emerging technologies attract consumer and market interest, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and data centers will also benefit from these investments.

Although governments around the world are seeking to establish local advantages, many local enterprises are still continuing to invest overseas. "It will take a long time for countries to build semiconductor supply chains that are completely independent of other countries or regions. And I don't think this is the best for our industry or technological innovation," said Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of SEMI "Today, this is a well connected system. We start with substrates and then manufacture chips. In terms of substrates, most materials and chemicals are produced in Japan, and some are also produced in Europe and the United States. Chip design is mostly completed in the United States, front-end manufacturing is mostly completed in Taiwan, China and South Korea, and packaging is mostly completed in Chinese Mainland and Southeast Asia. Then, some final tests are also in the United States, and sales are also in the United States The United States, so the six or seven regions in the world are interdependent. Bringing all aspects into the United States would bring many challenges. Establishing an entire ecosystem in a region is very time-consuming and can result in losing the advantage of specialization

According to SEMI's global wafer fab forecast for the third quarter of 2023, it is expected that 94 new 200mm and 300mm wafer fabs will be launched between 2022 and 2026, of which 78 have already begun operation, are either adding equipment or under construction. 63 of them are located in Asia, and 30 of them are located in Chinese Mainland; 18 located in the United States; Thirteen of them are located in Europe and the Middle East.

"Whether in the United States or other countries, everyone fully recognizes that this is a global industry and we are interdependent with multiple regions," Ajit Manocha said. "We need to collaborate."

In addition to the challenge of attempting to establish an independent system, Ajit Manocha also warned of the need to maintain international partnerships. We need to establish clear policies so that we can work together with other regions. We don't need to concentrate everything in one country, we do need to ensure that there is enough redundancy in the system so that if unfortunate events such as war occur, we won't be hostages to such situations. Whether it's fires, floods, or blizzards in Texas, wafer fabs face various risks. "The frequency of these disasters has increased, so we need multiple centers in the semiconductor industry, not just the few centers we have today," he said. "That's why we welcome India as a new hub, but there is still a long way to go."

In 2023, India and Malaysia attracted nearly a dozen semiconductor investments. "From the perspective of research and development, there are attractive reasons to build in both regions," said David Henhall, Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations at semiconductor research company SRC "Many design companies are building centers there because there are a large number of undergraduate and graduate students, and the economic development is also good. The cultivation of professional talents is a huge problem, so we have been cooperating with India to meet some of these needs. Some companies and the Indian government are seeing semiconductors as a way to help them develop their economy."

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