Japan's efforts to rebuild its semiconductor industry are getting a shot in the arm as more and more Taiwanese chip companies expand here - not only to support a new TSMC plant but also excited about the Japanese sector's prospects.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his annual New Year's Eve address, reiterated his claim that Taiwan would "surely be reunified" with China.

They included a unit of Taiwanese chip material reseller Topco Scientific and a subsidiary of Taipei-based L&K Engineering, according to a Bloomberg News investigation. Across town at another Huawei-affiliated site, Bloomberg identified workers from a subsidiary of construction specialist United Integrated Services (UIS).

Britain's semiconductor industry must focus on niche manufacturing and designs rather than seek to challenge international rivals in chipmaking, according to the UK's tech minister, who admitted that "we are not going to recreate Taiwan in south Wales."

When former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog won a contract with Taiwan's Foxconn in 2018, he tapped his former employer's supplier network to steal secrets to help his new client set up a chip factory in China, an indictment by South Korean prosecutors alleges.

Analysts say the move will weaken export-control measures aimed at curbing Beijing.

The exhibitors and speakers at both Computex and its related InnoVEX Forum certainly demonstrated a mood of optimism for Taiwan's crucial role in the AI economy.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has reopened a lead over internet giant Tencent Holdings as Asia's biggest company by market value, helped by a resumed rally in chip stocks.

Intel's bold plan to enter the custom chipmaking industry is aimed at countering the dominance of TSMC and boosting supply of leading-edge manufacturing. Instead, the move will likely split the market in three, leaving the US giant stuck in the middle.

Terry Gou, founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, is seeking the presidential nomination for Taiwan's main opposition party for a second time.

South Korea and Taiwan will still be key semiconductor hubs in years to come, even as pressure to diversify supply chains leads to new competition from places like the US and Germany, according to John Lee, president and CEO of MKS Instruments.

Taiwan's exports of integrated circuit chips rose in 2022 for a seventh consecutive year, further solidifying the economy's leadership status in a global semiconductor industry that has been roiled by US-China tensions and diversifying supply chains.

In a recent interview with the Barron's Tech newsletter, the Tufts history professor argued that American policy makers are still underestimating the significant risks of a possible disastrous outcome over Taiwan.

The appointments, which were revealed on Sunday, have raised concerns that Xi has surrounded himself with "yes men" as he leads China through what he called the "choppy waters" of the future, some of which are of his own making. The country is facing domestic economic troubles and worsening global tensions as Xi doubles down on threats to annex Taiwan.

US regulators will investigate units of Samsung, Qualcomm and TSMC over certain semiconductor devices and integrated circuits and mobile devices using those components, the U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, signaling the chip giant is benefiting from market share gains to weather an industry slowdown.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of Taiwan on Sunday, the island's weather bureau said, derailing train carriages, causing a convenience store to collapse and trapping hundreds on mountain roads.

The US has announced that they will begin formal trade negotiations with Taiwan, weeks after a controversial visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The first round of talks is expected to begin in "early fall", said the Office of US Trade Representative.

China has begun live fire military drills - its biggest-ever in the region - in the waters around Taiwan.

Taiwan's industrial sector, including the world's largest contract chipmaker, will be hit with the island's first power price increase in four years as the state-owned utility grapples with soaring fuel costs.

The Russian Federation government is considering adding chip designers Baikal Electronics and MCST to the list of 'backbone enterprises.' The status will provide Baikal and MSCT with numerous benefits, including subsidies. State aid might help these companies to transition the production of their chips from Taiwan to China. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether fabs like SMIC and Hua Hong are interested in making chips for Russian companies and risk additional sanctions.

That sophisticated tracing system emerged from a relatively low-tech and crowd sourced development process.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo discussed chip supply chains during a call with her opposite number in Taiwan and the two will cooperate on technology trade and investment through a newly established mechanism, her office said.

The video conference meeting between the two leaders, which lasted more than three-and-a-half hours represented their most substantial discussion since Biden took office in January, and comes at a time of particularly high tension.

Sony Group on Thursday confirmed it is considering a plan to join with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in building a chip factory in the western Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto.

In an exclusive interview with Time magazine, TSMC chairman Mark Liu said his team has to triangulate different data points to decipher which customers were truly in need and which were stockpiling.

Infineon chief executive Reinhard Ploss on Tuesday supported the idea of Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) building a chip fabrication plant in Germany, expressing a clear preference for its technology over that of Intel.

Taiwan's Foxconn and TSMC said on Monday they had reached deals to buy 10 million doses of Germany's BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, putting the total cost of the highly politicised deal at around $350 million.

Washington's moves showed that "the US is pressuring Taiwan and TSMC to support its supply chain" over China, said Paul Triolo, an analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group. They also challenge TSMC's historic position of neutrality and the company's strategy of "being everyone's foundry."

Taiwan will allow Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan's Foxconn, and TSMC to negotiate on the government's behalf for COVID-19 vaccines, a spokesman said on Friday, but warned he couldn't guarantee success.

Tokyo and Taipei would be smart to work more closely on technology development.

Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien, in an interview with Reuters late on Monday, said that he could not guarantee total safety for the city's tech firms, but that the government had rolled out rapid testing stations.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the National University of Taiwan (NTU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have jointly announced that a significant breakthrough was made in the development of 1-nanometer (nm) chips. The research results are published in the international journal Nature.

Taiwan will increase curbs on the use of water from June 1 in the major chip making hubs of Hsinchu and Taichung in a battle on an islandwide drought, should there be no significant rain by then, the government said on Wednesday.

Taiwan imposed power cuts on Monday evening following a spike in demand amid a heatwave and drought and failure at a power plant, in the second such outage in a week, although far fewer homes were affected.

Taiwan - which has so far survived the pandemic almost unscathed - on Sunday reported 207 new infections.

Taiwan has entered the community transmission stage of COVID-19 following the emergence of six domestic cases of the disease that have unknown sources of infection, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung said Tuesday.

The US Commerce Department is pressing TSMC and other Taiwanese firms to prioritise the needs of US automakers to ease chip shortages in the near term, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Chipmaking equipment supplier BE Semiconductor said on Friday it planned to boost its operations in the United States and Taiwan as its top customers ramp up investment to meet a surge in chip demand.

Governments around the world are subsidizing the construction of semiconductor factories as a chip shortage hobbles the auto and electronics industries and highlights the world's singular dependence on Taiwan for vital supplies.