ASE Technology Holding Co. broke ground on a new semiconductor testing facility in Kaohsiung's Renwu Industrial Park on Thursday, as the company accelerates capacity expansion to meet surging demand from artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications.
The new site, developed by ASE subsidiary Taiwan Fukurei Electronics in partnership with Ying Wei and Hong Teng, is planned as a high-end semiconductor testing services park with total investment exceeding approximately $3.6 billion (NT$108.3 billion). The company estimates the facility will generate annual output of roughly $5.9 billion (NT$177.3 billion) at full capacity.
Construction will proceed in two phases. The first is scheduled to begin operations in April 2027, with the second phase expanding in October of the same year. ASE said the facility will incorporate visual cloud inspection systems and fully automated unmanned transport equipment as part of its smart manufacturing strategy.
Tien Wu (吳田玉), ASE's chief executive, said the company expects to break ground on approximately six factories this year alone — a pace he described as unprecedented. "That should be a record," Chang said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Chang said the Renwu investment carries three distinct implications: economic momentum, through upstream supply chain spillovers in components and equipment; talent development, as the site is expected to create thousands of technical jobs and deepen ties with local universities; and industrial upgrading, by advancing AI-driven manufacturing automation and high-end testing capabilities.
ASE said it plans to hire 3,000 technical staff in Taiwan this year and a further 1,000 next year. The group currently employs more than 64,000 people in Taiwan, of whom over 28,000 are based in Kaohsiung. Chang noted that scaling from an existing base is significantly easier than starting from scratch, adding that the company intends to concentrate further investment in the city to deepen its clustering advantages.
ASE has been rooted in Kaohsiung for 42 years, anchored by roughly 280,000 square meters of facilities in the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park. The company has since extended its footprint to new sites in Luzhu and Dashe covering over 110,000 square meters, with the Renwu site adding approximately 50,000 square meters to its strategic layout.
The Renwu groundbreaking underscores Kaohsiung's expanding role in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain — moving beyond its established position as a packaging and testing hub toward becoming a critical node in advanced testing and AI-related supply chains.
Original Article in Chinese （Related： AI’s New Bottleneck: ASE’s Tien Wu Highlights Taiwan’s Three Key Advantages in Silicon Photonics Era ｜ Latest ）
