Interview: Oppstar grows ASIC design ties with Japan, South Korea clientele, plans Taiwan office

Oppstar’s deepening ASIC ties with Japanese and South Korean clients—and its planned office in Taiwan, China—signal a geopolitically driven realignment in global IC design services. Technically, its 16nm-centric heritage aligns precisely with Japan and Korea’s surging demand for mature-node automotive and industrial chips, indirectly offsetting capacity crowding at TSMC and Samsung’s advanced nodes. From a compliance standpoint, Malaysia’s localized IP and engineering talent offer a buffer against supply chain fragmentation under tightening U.S.-Japan-Netherlands export controls—though EDA licensing restrictions could sharply raise operating costs. Competitively, this move pressures VeriSilicon and Alphawave in Asia-Pacific custom design markets, especially in non-U.S./non-China segments. Over the next 12–24 months, such neutral-jurisdiction design firms will become pivotal nodes in multinational ‘de-risking’ strategies—but without sub-7nm capability, they’ll remain confined to the mid-tier of the value chain.