Malaysia Leads Sea Semiconductor Industry, Draws Global Partnerships -- Trade Minister
KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has the strongest semiconductor ecosystem in Southeast Asia, making it the top destination for collaboration among major technology players from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and the United States.
Investment, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Sim Tze Tzin said Malaysia’s ecosystem spans the entire semiconductor value chain, including downstream suppliers, vendors, materials providers, machine makers, as well as advanced assembly and testing and equipment (ATE) capabilities.
"This is the complete ecosystem that only exists in Southeast Asia, (and) only (in) Malaysia," he told a press conference after the Oppstar Bhd-Tokyo Artisan Intelligence Co Ltd signing ceremony here today.
Sim said in his keynote address that Malaysia has mastered assembly, testing, and packaging, capturing an impressive 13 per cent of global chip testing and packaging market share.
He said this is a monumental achievement that has provided millions of jobs, stabilised the economy and earned the trust of the world's largest multinational corporations.
Nonetheless, he said as the global tech landscape races toward an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven economy, the government cannot afford to be complacent.
"This is why the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) demands that we aggressively migrate up the value chain into front- and back-end integrated circuit (IC) design.
"Our goal is no longer just to execute other nations’ manufacturing blueprints, (but) to create, own and co-create the intellectual property (IP) that powers next-generation global technology," he said.
Oppstar, an IC design service provider in Malaysia, inked a strategic collaboration framework with Tokyo Artisan Intelligence, establishing a concrete Japan-Malaysia industrial cooperation framework.
The cooperation gathers Japan's cutting-edge AI implementation capabilities and real-world market needs, and Malaysia's robust semiconductor design talent and IC/ system on chip engineering expertise.
“The parties will explore the joint development and commercialisation of high-efficiency and low-power Al semiconductor chips optimised for edge computing, Radio Access Network applications, and energy-conscious infrastructure.
"The initial phase focuses on adapting Tokyo Artisan Intelligence's hardware-efficient AI vision and deep learning algorithms into custom, reconfigurable silicon design developed by Oppstar, targeting widespread use cases across global industries such as railways, smart manufacturing, and logistics," it said.
-- BERNAMA