Ex-Intel CEO says Taiwan energy concerns warrant U.S. pivot

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Visiting former Intel Corp. boss Pat Gelsinger said Tuesday that concerns over Taiwan's strained energy supply justify efforts to shift more semiconductor production to the United States, despite the island's manufacturing strengths.

At a news conference in Taipei, Gelsinger said Taiwan was "not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain," a weakness he warned puts the island's chip industry "in a very precarious state."

Gelsinger said that strengthening supply-chain resilience, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) investment in the United States, will benefit the global semiconductor ecosystem.

"More of the growth should occur in other geographies," Gelsinger said. "I encourage them to have more advanced nodes and R&D in the U.S."

Despite these challenges, Gelsinger said that Taiwan's manufacturing advantages mean it should not be discouraged by potential U.S. tariffs. "There's no place like Taiwan, [where] you can have an idea at breakfast, you can have a prototype by lunch, and you can have manufacturing by dinner."

Gelsinger spoke at an event announcing partnerships between his current employer, the California-based venture capital firm Playground Global, and seven companies.

Among the seven, Ayar Labs unveiled a strategic partnership with Taiwan's application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) provider Global Unichip Corp. (GUC) to integrate co-packaged optics (CPO) into GUC's advanced ASIC design services.

Meanwhile, d-Matrix announced collaborations with TSMC, Alchip Technologies and packaging-and-testing giant ASE to jointly develop 3D memory-stacking solutions to accelerate AI development.