Semicon 2026: Taiwan's Chip Footprint Expanding Abroad

This year, Semicon has seen a record high of 18 countries represented at the Global Pavilion, with their companies hoping to connect with Taiwanese semiconductor firms and make more business opportunities. Three first-time participants from Europe and the Americas share why they came here and what they hope to gain from the event. Mexico is highlighting its strategic location near the U.S. in TSMC's Arizona operations. The country hopes to move up the supply chain beyond manufacturing. Taiwan's Foxconn and Pegatron, among other companies, have factories in Mexico. In the whole ecosystem, Chihuahua can also play a role. We know that it's difficult to get directly into manufacturing and design, but we can start with packaging and packaging. Yes, we can start with the supply chain and slowly cultivate it. Some Taiwanese tech firms, especially in packaging, have expressed interest in expanding to the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Meanwhile, the Catalonia region of Spain is also courting Taiwanese companies with local support and tax-free access to the EU market. A Catalonian trade official says Semicon offers a chance to directly engage with Taiwanese firms. We here in Europe, we have the Semicon. In Europe, many years we hear it's important, so we thought Taiwan right now is one of the major places on earth to have semiconductors. So why don't we come here? Finland, meanwhile, is focused on expanding tech collaboration with Taiwanese businesses and academics, including in quantum technology, which uses quantum physics to enable new capabilities in computing, communication and sensing. There's a lot of things that Taiwan can contribute. And maybe Taiwan is not leading the quantum computing race, but they're definitely a very significant player. And we see collaboration with Taiwan works well. And we want to continue the collaboration. Finnish representatives share that more Taiwanese semiconductor industry professionals than expected have visited the pavilion and welcomed Taiwanese businesses to expand their presence in Finland. Beyond the first-timers, all the countries here share a common hope. To work with Taiwanese tech firms, leverage the country's long-established semiconductor expertise and possibly attract more of their presence back home. The trend comes as the global AI boom fuels the semiconductor industry, with market value expected to surpass US$1.5 trillion in 2026, up 90% from last year. This has also pushed Taiwanese businesses to grow their overseas footprint and capacity to meet demand. Experts note their main concerns they think about when expanding abroad. Experts see this as a positive development as it could enable Taiwanese firms to leverage local resources such as talent and land to further boost their companies' growth. They regard this as the beginning of Taiwanese tech's global expansion. As the chip business shifts from made-in-Taiwan to made-with-Taiwan, the country's tech powers is expected to continue reaching further across the globe. Chris Ma, Scott Huang, and I.T. in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.