After US President Donald Trump took office, he vigorously promoted the reshoring of the chip manufacturing supply chain, prompting some Taiwanese companies to shift the focus of their overseas expansion from previously favored new hubs in Southeast Asia to Arizona, where TSMC is located. Dr. Tien Wu, chief operating officer of ASE Technology Holding, said that the group's future overseas manufacturing footprint will still center on Penang, Malaysia, with the Philippines and South Korea serving as complementary bases, targeting automotive and robotics orders from global IDM customers.
Strengthening Malaysian presence
More than a year ago, ASE acquired two Infineon factories in the Philippines and South Korea and signed long-term supply agreements with the company. More recently, ASE announced the acquisition of an Analog Devices (ADI) plant in Penang, with the transaction expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2026, further strengthening the group's manufacturing presence in Malaysia. ASE will also sign a long-term supply agreement with ADI, under which ASE will provide manufacturing services for ADI. ADI and ASE will jointly invest to upgrade the technical capabilities of the Penang plant, which is expected to generate synergistic benefits in collaboration with the group's five existing facilities in the area.
Taiwan Plus One strategy
According to Wu, over the next five to ten years, the market will include both wafers produced in Taiwan and wafers produced outside Taiwan. For wafers manufactured within Taiwan, ASE, leveraging its mature and comprehensive capacity advantages, is expected to become customers' largest packaging and testing partner. As for wafers produced outside Taiwan, they will not necessarily be shipped back to Taiwan for packaging and testing.
As a result, ASE will position Penang as the core of its overseas manufacturing operations to take on customers and orders from around the world, particularly for non-Taiwan-produced wafers, using fully automated production and advanced manufacturing technologies to meet needs in system-level packaging and system architecture optimization.
ASE's Taiwan Plus One strategy is designed to support all customers and meet manufacturing needs on a global scale. Although it currently has overseas sites in both the Philippines and South Korea, Wu believes that Penang, with its strategic position and industry clustering effect, will remain an indispensable part of the group's global layout.
Article edited by Jerry Chen
