Taiwan To Use US-Led Chip To Protect Local Firms

Taiwan will use the new United States-led “Chip 4” group to safeguard the interests of Taiwanese companies and to ensure supply chain resilience, a deputy minister has said.

Taiwan deputy economy minister Chen Chern-chyi on Wednesday said that chipmaking required collaboration to ensure a “very resilient supply chain”.

“We will use that platform to strive to safeguard our companies’ interests,” he said, adding that the group had not started formal meetings.

A preliminary meeting of the group took place last week with representatives from Taiwan, the United States, South Korea and Japan attending.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has said that the island is committed to ensuring its partners have reliable supplies of semiconductors and has urged allies to boost collaboration amid intensified threats from China.

The “Chip 4” group’s Asian members are home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and key Japanese suppliers of semiconductor materials and equipment.