Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is not a favored bidder for Toshiba's memory chip business due to its close ties with China, sources with direct knowledge of the deal said.

"China will find it very tough to buy US high-tech companies and difficult to leverage Chinese joint ventures or wholly-owned enterprises to access key US intellectual property," Andrew Lu wrote in a Jan. 10 report for Smartkarma. "We thus expect more senior Taiwan veterans to join China's semiconductor industry as a second wave of talent moves to China."

Business weekly Toyo Keizai reported that Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, is interested in either taking a stake in or buying some of Toshiba's businesses.

Analysts with BlueFin Research Partners say that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will begin manufacturing Apple's A11 processor in late April.

In the latest signal from Washington that it's protecting its semiconductor industry from Beijing, US President Barack Obama on Friday issued an executive order barring a Chinese deal to buy a German semiconductor company's California-based subsidiary, citing national security reasons.

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken directly with the president of Taiwan - breaking with US policy set in 1979, when formal relations were cut.

Reporters from Reuters and the Nikkei Asian Review were denied access to a post-event group interview with Qualcomm executive chairman Paul Jacobs, to which only journalists from Taiwan's local press were invited.

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, and its Japanese subsidiary Sharp might start making next-generation display panels for smartphones in China as early as 2019, sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has announced that its Chung Li, Taiwan facility has received the ISO 26262 certification from TUV NORD, a technical service provider that helps companies to validate the safety of products and services.

The Taiwan government has appointed Audrey Tang, a transgender software developer and self-described "civic hacker," to its executive council to head digital policy.

Intel's recent pledge to expand its business making chips for others highlights its ambition to snatch chip orders for Apple's popular iPhones from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as early as 2018, industry experts said.

Taiwan is bracing itself for the arrival of a vast typhoon, expected to hit the island on Friday.

Taiwan's largest airline, China Airlines, said it had cancelled some flights to Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines on Friday as hundreds of its flight attendants prepared to go on strike over changes to their working conditions.

As of 0135 GMT, the main TAIEX index gained as much as 0.9% to 8,753.46 points, its highest level since March 31.

Apple plans to issue bonds in Taiwan for the first time with the aim of raising $1 billion, sources familiar with the matter said, joining a queue of big global names that have sold billions of dollars on the island's busy debt market.

Taiwan's tech suppliers will get significantly fewer orders from Apple in the second half of 2016 compared with a year ago, no thanks to an ongoing slump in demand for premium smartphones and a lack of groundbreaking features for the upcoming iPhone 7, sources familiar with the matter told the Nikkei Asian Review.

Ms Tsai's presidency is expected to see a change in the relationship between Taipei and Beijing.

When Taiwan's new president takes the oath of office this week, two vital constituencies-one at home, the other across the strait in mainland China-will be listening hard, but for different things.

For investors in Taiwan's $841 billion stock market, Tim Cook matters more than Tsai Ing-wen. "Any negative from Tsai can easily be washed out if the iPhone 7 does well," said JPMorgan.

The takeover bid by Hon Hai of Taiwan for Sharp, a chronically loss-making Japanese electronics firm, is being watched closely as a test of Japan's openness to foreign investment. But it is also being scrutinised back in Taiwan.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company hit a new 52-week high of US$25.80 on Mar 16, eventually closing at US$25.78.

JP Morgan thinks TSMC has not lost its technological edge and Qualcomm will be coming back to the Taiwan manufacturer for 7nm in 2018.

In her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan's democracy and both sides must ensure there are no provocations.

A state-controlled Chinese company's plan to invest about $2 billion in the Taiwanese semiconductor industry has intensified election-year concerns in Taiwan that could set back China's ambitions to develop a leading-edge microchip industry.

Qualcomm said Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation into whether the chipmaker's patent licensing arrangements violate the Taiwan Fair Trade Act.

Taiwan's police have busted a group of seven suspects who plotted to steal business secrets from GaAs wafer fab Win Semiconductors and sell them to China.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore on Saturday - the first ever meeting between leaders of the two sides.

Despite a late start in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's 16 nm FinFET process, TSMC appears to have captured up to a third of chip production for Apple's latest iPhones.

The first mobile phone manufacturer to take advantage of Google's Android software, HTC was once a strong player in the market, but in the past several years has steadily lost ground to competitors Samsung, Apple and, more recently, efficient Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei.

Taiwan's dollar fell to a five-year low as the central bank eased monetary policy to spur economic growth and China slashed the yuan's fixing by the most on record.

Taiwan's economy grew at the slowest pace in three years as exports collapsed amid weaker global demand and rising competition from regional rivals.

Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, is now Apple's second-largest market and has become a battleground for the company as it vies with Samsung Electronics Co. and Xiaomi Corp. for smartphone supremacy.

Pricing of DRAM, based on his "checks" with entities in Taiwan, is weak in PC, servers, and in graphics applications, writes Moore.

Apple has announced Apple Watch will be available in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan beginning Friday, June 26 from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

One person has been killed in Taiwan's capital Taipei in a house fire following a 6.6 magnitude earthquake.

Taiwan is not able to become a founding member of the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) but is still welcome to become a member in the future, the Chinese government said on Monday.

RBC Capital Markets chip analyst Doug Freedman this morning writes that chip maker Nvidia, which makes no parts itself, appears to have moved some of its orders for making its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics, and that this may presage giving some foundry business to Intel.

Alibaba said Monday it has earmarked 10 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$316 million) to invest in entrepreneurs from Taiwan who are starting and growing their businesses through Alibaba's online platforms.

The aggressive push by MediaTek to enter the global long-term evolution (LTE) market in competition with leader Qualcomm of the US is not likely to show significant results until 2016, according to Randy Abrams, Taiwan head of equities research for Credit Suisse.