Etron chair warns of US-South Korea alliance threatening Taiwan's chip industry

A deepening U.S.-South Korea semiconductor alliance would accelerate integration of DRAM and advanced packaging, directly eroding Taiwan’s niche in specialty memory and CoWoS ecosystems. Samsung’s revenue surpassing TSMC isn’t just cyclical—it signals a strategic shift where Washington could leverage the CHIPS Act to enforce supply chains that exclude Taiwanese players, raising their compliance burdens and client trust barriers. In response, TSMC and UMC may hasten U.S. fab expansions, while ASE and Powertech will likely deepen ties with Japanese and European IDMs to hedge geopolitical risk. Within 18 months, Taiwan’s industry faces ‘technological isolation’: even with leading capacity, exclusion from U.S.-Korea standard-setting coalitions could systematically restrict its access to premium markets.