Taiwan’s Biggest Silicon Wafer Maker Eyes U.S. Solar Industry Investment

GlobalWafers, the world’s No. 3 maker of silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry, made a splash in December with a groundbreaking newly announced $5 billion factory site in Texas. The facility will eventually employ up to 1,500 staff and is part of a growing number of projects by Taiwan-headquartered tech businesses in the U.S. In December, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world’s largest chipmakers, said it had increased its planned investment in Arizona to $40 billion from an earlier announced $12 billion.

This year, GlobalWafers’ parent company, Sino-American Silicon Products, is looking to invest in another U.S. industry with good prospects: solar energy. Sino-American aims to assemble solar modules for the U.S. market either on its own or with a joint venture partner that can offer manufacturing and distribution, Sino-American chair and CEO Doris Hsu said in a recent interview at the company’s headquarters in Hsinchu.

Though not final, “it’s very likely” Sino-American will invest in the solar energy equipment in the U.S., either in its own solar module facility or in a joint venture with a partner with a facility and its own distribution, Hsu said. “I haven’t finalized which plan we’re going to go with, but basically U.S. will be a very important market.”

She didn’t specify who the partner might be or how much new capital might be involved. “I believe that in the next several years, the U.S. solar market will be booming,” said the 61-year-old member of two recent Forbes lists for Asia – Asia’s Power Businesswomen and today’s newly published 50 Over 50 Asia (see link here). “We will be more aggressive this year to promote the business there,” she said. “We cannot afford to miss the market.”

Like GlobalWafers’ $5 billion Texas project—which is benefitting from government support under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act approved by Congress last year, an attraction for Sino-American in the U.S. solar business is government policy. The Inflation Reduction Act, also approved by Congress last year, includes new incentives for solar installations, Hsu predicted.

U.S. solar capacity installed in 2021 before last year’s supply chain woes exceeded 20 gigawatts, she said. “I think this will go up to 50 gigawatts in the next several years,” she said. Hsu believes demand will get a boost from larger companies such as Apple, who are asking suppliers to provide green solutions. Spending on solar will also get a lift from continued improvements in the performance of solar technology, such as bigger cells that improve efficiency.

Hsu’s solar and silicon wafer businesses had a good year in 2022. Sino-American’s revenue rose by 18.9% to a record NT$81.9 billion, or about $2.7 billion. Of that, solar revenue gained 34.5% to NT$10.3 billion. GlobalWafers contributed nearly 90% to Sino-American’s revenue, but solar grew faster.

New projects by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Hon Hai Precision, the iPhone manufacturer that last year joined a $55 million electric light-duty truck joint venture in Ohio with Lordstown Motors, suggest larger room for Taiwan suppliers to invest in the U.S., American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan President Andrew Wylegala said in an interview in Taipei in November. By doing so, they are following customers, mitigating political risk and solving bottlenecks in Taiwan, such as limited land supplies and chronic power shortages, said Wylegala, a nearly 15-year U.S. Department of Commerce veteran in Asia before joining AmCham Taiwan in 2021.

The close business relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan needs to be better recognized, Wylegala said. “I don’t think it gets enough attention and credit for just how solid, mutually productive, and profitable it is,” he said. “It’s a strong relationship in trade and investment, in technology and strategic partnering, and in the fundamental strengths that Taiwan offers in terms of economic freedom, the rule of law and vibrant democracy,” he said. “Even though we have the global downturn, supply chain disruptions and the cross-Strait challenge, there’s still a lot of strength and vigor.” Taiwan is the No. 11 U.S. trade partner and No. 8 goods export market, for instance, he said.

Sino-American was founded in 1981 in the newly opened Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan; it remains headquartered in the same building it started in, surrounded today by neighboring manufacturers that today provide the lion’s share of the world’s leading-edge microchips. The company was losing money on sales of around $16 million annually in 1998 when Hsu, a sales engineer at an equipment supplier to the business, was persuaded by a new investor to join. GlobalWafers was spun off from Sino-American in 2011 with then-rising star Hsu as CEO in 2011; Sino-American, which still owns 51% of GlobalWafers, kept the solar business.

Today, GlobalWafers—the larger of the two companies—has a stock market capitalization of $6.7 billion (versus Sino-American’s $3 billion) and manufacturing operations in Asia, the U.S. and Europe. Its mainstream 12-inch wafers are used in making a wide range of semiconductor chips and sold to customers including Samsung, Intel and Micron. Hsu competes against the likes of Shin-Etsu, Sumco and Siltronic. She was named chair and CEO of Sino-American in 2020; Hsu is both chair and CEO of GlobalWafers.

The holder of a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign credits a love of semiconductors and tight cost focus among the reasons for her success. But there’s also own-fashioned hard work: Hsu arrives at the office at 5 a.m. daily and, colleagues say, shows no sign of slowing down.

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