Plug and Play's Wayne Soh on the shifting flows of Chinese, Indian, and Taiwanese founders through the city-state.
Founded in 2014, Oppstar is one of the few Malaysian companies operating at the front end of the semiconductor value chain as an IC design house. The company was established by three founders with extensive experience in the IC design industry: Meng Thai Ng, Hun Wah Cheah, and Chun Chiat Tan. Headquartered in Bayan Lepas, Penang, Oppstar opened an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2022. From its inception, the company positioned itself as a one-stop IC design service provider, initially focusing on 16nm design nodes.
The global semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing landscape continues to undergo structural realignment. An increasing number of Chinese technology and semiconductor companies are adopting a dual-location strategy, establishing corporate entities in Singapore while locating manufacturing operations in Malaysia in an effort to reduce their association with the "Made in China" label.
Singapore-based Galatek Technologies is expanding into scarce advanced packaging equipment as it builds localized manufacturing capacity in Malaysia, aiming to capture demand from a shifting global semiconductor supply chain.
