South Korean government recently announced it will join forces with leading Korean brands to allocate 510 trillion Won (US$451 billion) to rev up national chip manufacturing capacity by 2030, the United Daily News reported on May 14. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry also stated it will raise the tax reduction ratio for semiconductor R&D by leading companies to 40%, up from the current 30%. This will benefit major chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix by boosting their capacity significantly. Samsung reportedly will invest more than US$151 billion in system LSI (Large-Scale Integration) and foundry businesses while Hynix will allocate US$97 billion to expand existing facilities in addition to US$106 billion for four plants in Yongin, Korea. Severe chip shortages are a key reason to prompt the global race in semiconductor production. Meanwhile, Taiwanese foundry industry’s shipment value grew from US$37.5 billion in 2019 to US$49.1 billion in 2020, up 31% year-on-year, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a major government think tank and leading IT research institute in Taiwan. MIC predicts the global and Taiwan semiconductor industry’s shipment value will reach US$475.3 billion and NT$3.4 trillion (US$123.2 billion) in 2021, respectively.