ASE, Wus to jointly build Kaohsiung advanced packaging plant by 2029 - digitimes

Taiwan's semiconductor industry witnesses a significant collaborative project as Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and PCB manufacturer Wus Printed Circuit announce a joint venture to construct... Read original →

ASE’s joint venture with Wus in Kaohsiung is a direct response to AI chips hitting physical scaling limits, forcing performance gains through advanced packaging. This move will spike demand for ABF substrates, TSV equipment, and high-precision bonders while pressuring OSATs to vertically integrate PCB and wafer-level capabilities. Geopolitically, over-concentration of capacity in Taiwan risks triggering 'friend-shoring' mandates from the U.S. and EU, raising compliance costs—yet successful localization of equipment by 2029 could insulate the supply chain from export controls. Strategically, this counters Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ aggressive push into AI packaging via its H-Cube platform. Over the next 18 months, the market will face a bifurcation: severe shortages in CoWoS capacity versus oversupply in legacy Fan-out, forcing second-tier OSATs into consolidation or exit.