ASE Breaks Ground On New Packaging Plant
The Taiwan-based OSAT continues to expand its capacity
By Mark LaPedus
In an ongoing effort to expand its manufacturing capacity, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has broken ground on a new packaging facility in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
The facility will be used to manufacture advanced packages, according to Taiwan’s ASE, the world’s largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) vendor. OSATs provide third-party chip packaging and testing services for companies.
ASE’s new facility is situated at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park III in Kaohsiung, a city located in southern Taiwan.
With a total investment of NT$17.8 billion (US$552.89 million), the construction of the new facility is expected to begin sometime in 2026. The construction is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2028. Upon completion, the new facility will create approximately 1,470 jobs.
The facility consists of two buildings. One building will serve as the logistics center. This building will provide the materials handling, inventory management and delivery functions.
The second building is dedicated to high-end packaging. This building will also accommodate testing requirements for various packaging and module products, including lead frame packaging and ball grid array (BGA) products, as well as system testing for high-frequency and power management modules.
At present, ASE is seeing strong demand for its advanced packages and testing services in the market. To meet demand, ASE is building or acquiring new packaging facilities. The demand has prompted ASE to raise its capital spending budget to $7 billion in 2026, up from $5.5 billion in 2025.
AI is fueling the growth. “The AI server cycle continues, primarily led by hyperscalers and the data center development. There’s a lot of activity in the physical layers via edge applications. For example, we’re seeing more designs regarding robotics and drones, (plus) the equipment surrounding automotive and smart manufacturing. We believe the mainstream (business), namely the IoT, automotive, and the general sector, will recover better this year compared to last year,” said Tien Wu, chief operating officer at ASE, during a recent conference call.