As US-China trade tensions escalate, Malaysia’s semiconductor industry is reaping the benefits. Global tech giants are shifting operations away from China, driving record investments into the country.
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00:00This is how a throne is built, not for a king but for a computer chip.
00:08High-end IC substrates are produced at this brand new AT&S factory in Malaysia.
00:17These tiny tech thrones help computer chips send and receive information.
00:23For the Austrian company, the plant in Kulim Hightech Park is a mega investment, larger
00:28in size than both of their plants in China combined.
00:33This clean room alone spans 100,000 square meters.
00:37The site will create 6,000 jobs.
00:41This boom in Malaysia is largely driven by the China Plus One strategy.
00:46This approach encourages companies to seek additional production locations to mitigate
00:51risks.
00:52China was discussed for many reasons that it's not a suitable option for AT&S anymore.
01:00We have quite a big footprint in China and it was decided that for the next growth step
01:07we want to balance our geographical footprint a bit and we looked for locations outside
01:12of China.
01:14Also some of our customers are requesting certain products not to be manufactured in
01:20China.
01:22The tech boom in Malaysia began on the island of Penang and is continuing.
01:27The so-called Silicon Valley of the East saw record foreign investment in 2023, outpacing
01:33the previous seven years combined.
01:37Advantages include political stability, a diverse and skilled workforce that speaks
01:43English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, and a network of many multinational companies, including
01:49several from China.
01:53Malaysia on our own is a politically neutral country, we are open for collaboration from
01:59the US, we are open for collaboration from China as well, so we don't mind the geopolitical
02:04war per se, but instead what we, at least from my perspective, what I've been observing
02:11all this while is the government has been politically neutral and trying to leverage
02:14on this geopolitical war and see what we bring to the country.
02:19The professor explains that the Malaysian government has already set up a special task
02:24force to boost talent production.
02:27Thousands of engineers are needed.
02:30Malaysia is turning up the heat to move upstream, shifting from a low-cost manufacturing centre
02:36to a high-tech production hub.