Taiwan is putting public money behind homegrown semiconductor tools and design software, a positive move for local equipment makers and small chip startups that now depend on foreign suppliers.

• Starting next year, the government will pay universities and research labs to co-design cutting-edge chip equipment with Taiwanese toolmakers.
• The push sits inside a five-year, NT$17 billion program to build shared chip research facilities across the island.
• Money is going into compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, advanced lithography, an atomic-scale process platform, and pilot production lines for 12-inch 28nm wafers and 3D packaging.
• A second plan targets chip design software, an area foreign giants have dominated, with Taiwan aiming at newer niches like advanced packaging where those rivals are not yet locked in.
• Small chip design firms and startups would get a cheaper, complete toolchain through a cloud platform.

Outlook: The equipment co-development grants begin next year, with the wider program running to 2028.