On December 6, the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) convened the 2025 Taiwan–Japan–Korea Trilateral Technology Dialogue, bringing together government, industry, and academic experts from the three economies to discuss emerging technology collaboration in semiconductors, AI, drones, and energy security.

The first panel on semiconductor cooperation was moderated by Dr. Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang, CEO of DSET and Director of the Economic Security Program. Speakers included Cheng Ting-fang, Chief Technology Correspondent at Nikkei Asia; Dr. Seok Joon Kwon, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science at Sungkyunkwan University; and Professor Hideki Wakabayashi, Distinguished Professor at Kumamoto University’s Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials.

The discussion focused on emerging avenues for trilateral semiconductor cooperation amid intensifying geopolitical competition and the accelerating AI-driven restructuring of the global chip industry.

Nikkei Asia’s Cheng Ting-fang: Enterprise-driven cooperation remains resilient

Drawing from her frontline reporting, particularly at TSMC’s Arizona and Kumamoto fabs, Cheng Ting-fang analyzed the challenges and opportunities in Taiwan’s global semiconductor deployment:

  • TSMC’s Arizona fab, though strategically important for U.S. customers, has been hindered by higher-than-expected costs, regulatory hurdles, permitting delays, and local labor shortages.
  • The Kumamoto fab in Japan has progressed more steadily, but its expansion pace has recently slowed due to weakening demand for automotive and industrial chips—despite strong global demand for AI accelerators.

Cheng emphasized that government-to-government frameworks remain constrained due to geopolitical sensitivities. However, enterprise-driven cooperation is already robust and highly resilient, citing the collaboration between TSMC and SK Hynix on HBM base dies and advanced packaging as a leading example.

She concluded by referencing former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who argued that no nation can achieve full semiconductor self-sufficiency, underscoring that building supply chain resilience will remain a “multi-decade challenge.”

Korea’s Seok Joon Kwon: Redefining national power through GDI and calling for a technical alliance

Professor Seok Joon Kwon introduced the concept of Gross Domestic Intelligence (GDI), arguing that in the AI era, national power will increasingly be determined by computing capacity and energy sustainability.

He identified three shared structural challenges facing Taiwan, Japan, and Korea:

  1. Uncertainty in the post-2 nm technology roadmap
  2. The Memory Wall bottleneck
  3. Energy supply constraints for AI-era semiconductor manufacturing

To address these challenges, he called for the three economies to move beyond commercial competition and build a substantive technical alliance.

He proposed:

  • Leveraging advanced Japanese accelerator light sources such as KEK to jointly research post-EUV lithographyand next-generation memory technologies
  • Opening Korea’s planned Semiconductor Manufacturing Hub as an international R&D and testing platform for Taiwan and Japan
  • Deepening AI applications in traditional industries (e.g., shipbuilding) and collaborating on AI safety and ethical standards

Japan’s Hideki Wakabayashi: A “Dual Silicon Triangle” as the strategic framework

Professor Hideki Wakabayashi advocated for a “Dual Silicon Triangle” framework to guide trilateral cooperation.

He described two overlapping triangular structures defining today’s semiconductor ecosystem:

  1. Competition Triangle: U.S.–China–Taiwan, shaped by geopolitical rivalry
  2. Cooperation Triangle: Japan–Taiwan–Korea, rooted in industrial complementarity

Under this structure:

  • Taiwan serves as the core hub with leading wafer foundry and advanced process capabilities
  • Japan supplies over 50% of global materials and 30% of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, anchoring the upstream supply chain
  • South Korea remains the global leader in memory semiconductors

Wakabayashi stressed that this deep complementarity forms the most stable foundation for long-term trilateral cooperation.