Korean Media: In the Era of Reshaping Chip Supply Chains, Strategic Cooperation Between South Korea and Taiwan Matters More Than Competition

[17th Asian Leadership Conference] Huang Qinyong, Chairman of Taiwan's Electronics Times

"Although Samsung Electronics is currently facing serious challenges such as strikes, I remain optimistic about its future."

On the 20th local time, at the Asia Leadership Conference (ALC) held at Shilla Hotel in Jongno District, Seoul, Huang Qinyong, chairman of Taiwan's Electronics Times, attended the forum titled "Global Chip Supply Chain Reconfiguration by South Korea and Taiwan" and made the above remarks. Electronics Times is a professional IT media co-founded by Morris Chang, founder of TSMC, and Stan Shih, founder of Acer. Huang Qinyong himself is a global ICT industry analyst with over 30 years of experience.

Huang analyzed the industrial structure of today’s artificial intelligence (AI) era, stating: "Major tech companies are processing massive amounts of AI data, but it is the Asian supply chains—particularly those in Taiwan and South Korea—that actually produce servers and core components for them. This is the 'hidden value' (Hidden Value). Companies like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron, TSMC, and Intel occupy central positions in controlling the global supply chain ecosystem."

He emphasized: "The majority of South Korea’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) exports flow into Taiwan. South Korea and Taiwan are situated at the most critical juncture of the U.S.-China supply chain competition, making strategic cooperation (co-work) far more important than rivalry." He explained: "The most advanced HBM produced by South Korea at enormous cost must ultimately be shipped to Taiwan, which handles final assembly and packaging."

He reiterated: "In the fierce competition involving investments exceeding $30–40 billion to build ultra-large-scale data centers and achieve AI dominance, South Korea and Taiwan should not view each other merely as rivals to be defeated. Only through 'strategic cooperation' (co-work)—by sharing and complementing strengths in areas such as contract manufacturing, memory, equipment, and testing—can the Asian chip industry survive and seize leadership in increasingly intense global technological hegemony struggles."

"We Should Share Our Strengths in Contract Manufacturing, Memory, etc."

During his speech that day, Huang Qinyong interspersed fluent Korean, saying: "I am not just an ordinary Taiwanese person—I am a Taiwanese who understands Korea," eliciting laughter from the audience.

Huang Qinyong is a figure who grew up alongside Taiwan’s semiconductor miracle. He stated: "Over the past 14 years, TSMC’s market capitalization has increased from $87 billion to $210 billion—a growth of nearly 24 times." He added that Taiwan’s GDP growth rate reached 13.7% in the first quarter of this year. He noted: "Before the 1980s, over 60% of Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) came from agriculture, and per capita GDP was only $248 in 1966." He pointed out: "Among the countries that started from agrarian economies and succeeded through self-reliance over the past 60 years, apart from the United States and China, only South Korea and Taiwan have achieved such success."

He highlighted Taiwan’s advantages in the chip industry: "Taiwan has 1,051 listed electronics firms, building a full-chain division of labor ecosystem spanning chip design (Fabless), contract manufacturing, to packaging and testing." He noted that while South Korea, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, holds the highest global competitiveness in memory chips, it lags relatively in system chip ecosystems and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) capabilities. He added: "Among the world’s top 100 semiconductor companies, 16 are from Taiwan, while only 3 are from South Korea."

However, Huang Qinyong stated: "74–78% of Taiwan’s total exports depend solely on electronic products, making it extremely vulnerable to global fluctuations."

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1865783036581888/

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