Taiwan's machinery makers are moving into semiconductor equipment, a potential win for local suppliers but a slow, hard shift that will take years to pay off.

• Taiwan makes world-class chips but still buys most of its chipmaking equipment from abroad, and the machinery industry wants to change that.
• The global market for chip equipment is expected to reach $230 billion by 2028, a big prize for Taiwanese firms.
• Interest is exploding — over a hundred machinery companies showed up at this year's SEMICON Taiwan show, up from just over a dozen in past years.
• The hard part is trust: chip lines demand near-perfect precision, and one supplier project with TSMC took more than a year and a half just to get certified.
• China moves faster by putting equipment into production first and fixing quality later, while Taiwan won't risk its high-yield lines that way.

Outlook: Expect slow, steady progress as industry groups and government-backed research institutes help local firms move from building machines to getting them actually used in mass production.