With semiconductor becoming a strategic asset and the pressure of electric vehicle (EV) transformation looming, Japan has developed an industry revitalization policy to encourage international and local companies to expand their investment in Japan through subsidies.

In the coming years, the semiconductor industry is expected to see a strong market, and TSMC and other foundries are expanding their facilities and investments. All upstream and downstream industry players - including those in the foundry, packaging material, and fab tool sectors - are all keen on making investments. Taiwan's role in the supply chain is becoming increasingly important.

The shortage of chips is still a headache for Asian technology companies and major carmakers. As the US Department of Commerce's deadline for semiconductor companies to turn over critical information approaches, it remains to be seen whether the department will be able to find a way to ease the bottleneck in semiconductor supply as it claims.

Despite global economy already on track for gradual recovery as the pandemic continues to ease, the pandemic-induced imbalance between semiconductor supply and demand has not yet subsided.

Aside from Europe, China and the US, Digitimes Research believes India's EV industry also has great development potential.

Although global notebook demand will decelerate in 2022 and 2023, their shipments will regain momentum starting 2024, while the global smartphone market is expected to enjoy shipment growth every year from 2022-2026. Global tablet shipments will see a moderate growth in 2021, but will shrink in each of the next five years starting 2022.

Unisoc has become an alternative source of smartphone AP supply for Chinese smartphone brands.

Thanks to ongoing strong chip demand, the top-3 Taiwan-based foundries - TSMC, UMC and VIS - performed outstandingly in second-quarter 2021 and will see revenue climb further in the third quarter.

TSMC is currently in the lead in terms of process technology but Samsung Electronics has been gearing up on its related R&D, eyeing to catch up.

As the supply chain aggressively ramped up chip inventory in second-half 2020, IC assembly and test capacity utilization showed a major increase.

Taiwan-based manufacturers are expected to show various levels of strength in different areas but have an established presence in EV components and subsystems.

While there may be different views on the validity of Moore's Law, TSMC is confident that it can uphold Moore's Law as it makes smooth progress in advanced process technologies.