ASE's Huang urges AI profits to fund R&D for CPO, PLP

As chip nodes approach 2nm, packaging technologies are rapidly advancing toward heterogeneous integration, making materials a critical bottleneck for performance breakthroughs. ASE President Huang's call to fund CPO and PLP R&D from AI profits highlights the industry's urgent need for material supply chain restructuring. This move will strengthen vertical integration between upstream material vendors and downstream packaging firms, especially in key areas like optical interconnects and high-density interconnects, forming a closed-loop technology ecosystem. From a policy perspective, the establishment of the SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS ALLIANCE signals a shift from competition to collaboration in the global semiconductor supply chain, particularly amid U.S.-China tech decoupling. TSMC and UMC may accelerate in-house material R&D to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. Over the next 12-24 months, CPO and PLP technologies will rapidly mature, shortening material validation cycles, ushering in a technology dividend phase. However, increasing supply chain concentration also introduces new consolidation risks.