ASE boosts AI packaging spend

ASE Technology is ramping spending on the back end of chipmaking, with Chief Executive Officer Tien Wu saying on April 10 that the company plans to invest more than NT$108.3 billion, about US$3.41 billion, in a new Kaohsiung facility to expand advanced integrated-circuit testing for artificial-intelligence demand. (focustaiwan.tw) The first phase at the Jenwu Industrial Park site is scheduled to start production in April 2027, and Wu said a second phase is expected to begin production in October 2027. ASE said the project will form part of a larger packaging-and-testing cluster in Kaohsiung for high-performance computing chips. (focustaiwan.tw) Chip packaging is the step after a chip is manufactured, when the silicon is connected, protected, and linked to the rest of a system. For artificial-intelligence processors, that work now includes packing several chiplets and high-bandwidth memory chips close together so they can move data faster and use less power. (aseglobal.com) ASE’s Fan-Out Chip on Substrate, or FOCoS, is one of those methods. The company says FOCoS uses redistribution layers to create shorter die-to-die links between multiple chips, can handle more than 1,000 input-output connections, and is aimed at networking, server, high-performance computing, and artificial-intelligence applications. (aseglobal.com) ASE has been adding to that lineup as customers push for denser designs. In May 2025, it introduced FOCoS-Bridge with through-silicon vias, saying the design shortens delivery paths, raises connection density, improves thermal dissipation, and cut power loss by three times in its announcement. (businesswire.com) The spending push is broader than one new building. On February 5, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tung said ASE planned another US$1.5 billion in machinery capital expenditure in 2026 on top of US$3.4 billion spent in 2025, while investment in buildings and facilities would stay near 2025’s US$2.1 billion level. (marketscreener.com) ASE also told investors that its advanced packaging business is expected to double to US$3.2 billion in 2026. Reuters reported that Siliconware Precision Industries, ASE’s subsidiary, is a major packaging supplier for Nvidia’s artificial-intelligence chips, tying ASE’s expansion directly to the industry’s scramble for more packaging capacity. (marketscreener.com) The company is adding conventional capacity alongside the leading-edge work. ASE said on March 11 that it had broken ground on two more buildings in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih Technology Industrial Park with a separate NT$17.8 billion investment, including a smart logistics center and a high-end packaging-and-testing facility due by the second quarter of 2028. (aseglobal.com) That mix helps explain why older processes are still showing up in the supply chain. ASE’s new Nanzih site said it will support products including lead-frame packaging and ball-grid-array products, even as the same campus adds system validation and testing for more complex artificial-intelligence and high-frequency modules. (aseglobal.com) For chip companies, the bottleneck is no longer only who can design the fastest processor. ASE’s latest timetable shows that testing floors, packaging lines, logistics buildings, and power-efficient interconnects are now being built almost as aggressively as the chips themselves. (focustaiwan.tw)