At the Electronics Asia Conference 2025, Ang Wee Seng, Executive Director of the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA) delivered a message that resonated deeply with engineers, designers, and executives alike: the future of semiconductors is not about chasing Moore’s Law—it’s about achieving equilibrium.

“This year, we bring together three powerful currents shaping our world—AI, automotive, and connectivity,” Ang said, adding that they are not separate trends, but parts of a single equation of balance—the future equilibrium.

And that notion of balance between performance and purpose, innovation and sustainability, is fast becoming the defining narrative of the global semiconductor sector. The challenge for engineers today, Ang suggested, is not only how to move faster, but how to move smarter and more responsibly.

The trillion-dollar trajectory

Few industries can match semiconductors in scale or speed of transformation. By 2025, global semiconductor revenue is expected to reach $728 billion, according to a revised forecast by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, reflecting a 15 percent year-on-year increase and keeping the trillion-dollar milestone firmly in sight before the decade’s end.

Asia remains the engine behind this growth. The region accounts for nearly two-thirds of global semiconductor output, with Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China forming what Ang called “the world’s most advanced semiconductor ecosystem.”

The geographical proximity of design, fabrication, assembly, and test—often just hours apart by air—has created an innovation density unique to Asia. Yet, as Ang emphasized, this is more than a manufacturing story. It’s an evolution in how the industry organizes itself.

“What used to be a linear supply chain is now a global web of partnerships,” he said. “The center of gravity for innovation, manufacturing, and talent has shifted eastwards. And with that comes new conversations about trust, resilience, and collaboration.”

Beyond Moore’s Law: Thinking in systems

For 60 years, Moore’s Law guided the industry’s rhythm: double the transistor count, double the possibilities. But as Ang pointed out, “We cannot shrink forever—we can’t go smaller than the size of an atom.”

The industry’s response has been to turn the equation “sideways.” Instead of shrinking transistors, engineers are integrating diverse chiplets into complete systems.

“Imagine a mosaic of specialized dies—logic, memory, sensors, power—brought together through advanced packaging and 3D stacking,” Ang said. “That’s how we keep progressing when the old roadmap ends.”

This shift from process-node scaling to system-level integration is redefining how semiconductor value is created. Technologies such as heterogeneous integration, chiplet-based SoCs, and advanced interconnects are blurring the boundaries between what used to be discrete components.

This is precisely where the three forces Ang highlighted—AI, automotive, and connectivity—begin to intersect.

AI: The new compute imperative

“AI has become the engine of the new era we are in,” Ang said. But it’s an engine with an insatiable hunger for compute and energy.

As large-scale AI and generative models proliferate, datacenters are becoming the new factories of intelligence. The consequence is an exponential rise in energy and bandwidth demands.

“The next performance race is no longer about clock speed,” Ang argued. “It’s about computing with conscience—faster, yes, but greener and wiser.”

Across Asia, countries are racing to build AI-optimized infrastructure. In China, Beijing and Changping are developing massive hyperscale AI campuses. In Japan, Tokyo is positioning itself as an “AI-as-a-Service” hub.

New datacenters are being architected for compute density and energy efficiency in Singapore, while Hyderabad in India is creating a national supercomputing grid for generative AI.

Last but not least, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia are expanding their testing, colocation, and backend capacity to serve AI workloads.

“The AI revolution is not centralized—it is regional and collaborative,” Ang noted. Each market brings complementary strengths in design, compute, and connectivity, collectively forming an ecosystem “where intelligence is built and shared.”

For the semiconductor sector, that means sustained demand for high-performance GPUs, AI accelerators, optical interconnects, and energy-efficient power devices. But it also raises the need for new paradigms in cooling, packaging, and sustainability.

Automotive: The intelligent machine on wheels

If AI is the brain of the new digital economy, automotive is its most visible body. The transformation from mechanical to electronic mobility is rewriting semiconductor demand curves.

“An average EV today contains 1,400 to 1,500 chips,” Ang said. “Premium models already exceed 3,000.” These devices span power electronics, sensors, infotainment, ADAS, and radar—each playing a critical role in turning vehicles into mobile data centers.

“Semiconductors used to make vehicles move,” he said. “Today, they make them think, feel, and respond.”

The automotive semiconductor opportunity is particularly vibrant in Asia:

In Thailand, BYD’s new $490 million plant in Rayong is producing 150,000 EVs annually, spurred by $4 billion in government incentives. On the other hand, VinFast in Vietnam is expanding its manufacturing and R&D capabilities to serve global markets.

In Malaysia, the Automotive High-Tech Valley in Perak is positioning itself as a regional EV assembly hub, while Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 is accelerating EV adoption with new grants and charging infrastructure.

“This is no longer just an automotive story,” Ang said. “It’s a semiconductor story. Every EV requires high-voltage power devices, sensors, and high-performance computing chipsets.”

But with electrification comes a new constraint: energy. Power demand from EVs, AI systems, and renewable integration is soaring, challenging the physical limits of traditional silicon. The answer, Ang believes, lies in materials innovation.

SiC and GaN

“Energy is the new bottleneck,” Ang said. “To solve it, we must innovate not just on design, but on physics itself.”

That innovation is emerging in the form of wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors—notably silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). Both materials handle higher voltages, temperatures, and frequencies than conventional silicon, enabling dramatic gains in power efficiency.

SiC is already seeing widespread adoption in EV inverters and solar inverters, where its ability to reduce switching losses and passive component size translates directly to smaller, lighter, and cooler systems.

GaN, on the other hand, with its faster switching and higher power density, is finding traction in consumer fast chargers, datacenter power supplies, and 5G power amplifiers.

“Together, SiC and GaN are not incremental steps,” Ang emphasized. “They’re quantum leaps in how we manage power and sustainability.”

This materials revolution underscores a broader point: true progress in semiconductors comes when physics, design, and manufacturing co-evolve.

Connecting everything

The third pillar in Ang’s triad—connectivity—is what enables AI and automotive systems to operate as part of a unified whole.

“Imagine AI and automotive without connectivity,” he said. “They couldn’t exist. Connectivity is the foundation.”

From 5G’s ultra-low-latency networks to the promise of 6G’s sub-millisecond response times, semiconductors are the enablers of real-time communication between edge devices and the cloud. Data now moves, processes, and acts within microseconds—a prerequisite for autonomous vehicles, smart factories, and AI-driven cities.

“When we connect everything, we don’t just transfer data anymore,” Ang said. “We transfer with purpose.”

However, this hyperconnectivity also generates an unprecedented data explosion. In 2025 alone, the world will generate 181 zettabytes—roughly 181 billion TB—of data. Managing, storing, and analyzing that data requires both silicon innovation and energy discipline.

The global datacenter power draw is forecast to exceed 1 petawatt-hour per year by 2026, a massive load that underscores the urgency of efficiency.

“The challenge,” Ang said, “is to process this tsunami of data while keeping the planet’s energy curve in check. That is the real engineering frontier of this decade.”

Encouragingly, chip designers are responding with innovations in low-power architectures, liquid cooling, photonic interconnects, and AI-assisted power management—technologies that can flatten the datacenter energy curve without stalling digital progress.

Toward the future equilibrium

For Ang, the convergence of AI, automotive, and connectivity is more than a technological narrative—it’s a roadmap for balanced innovation.

“AI defines intelligence. Automotive redefines power. Connectivity unifies with purpose,” he said. “Together they form a triangle of progress. At the center of it all is intention.”

That “intention” is what Ang calls the future equilibrium—a state where technology serves both performance and sustainability, and where nations and companies collaborate rather than compete in silos.

“The future is not just about faster chipsets or smarter cars,” he concluded. “It’s about co-designing a world that is more connected, more conscious, and more human.”

Collaboration is critical

Perhaps the most striking element of Ang’s address was his call for collective innovation. The next phase of semiconductor advancement, he argued, will not be defined by any single company—or even a single country.

“The next frontier will be built by a world that chooses to innovate together,” he said.

Indeed, the semiconductor ecosystem is increasingly interdependent: materials from Japan feed fabs in Taiwan; EDA tools from the U.S. enable design houses in Singapore; OSAT players in Malaysia and the Philippines close the loop. Cross-border collaboration has become the lifeblood of progress.

As AI workloads scale, EV penetration accelerates, and connectivity standards evolve, this interconnectedness will only deepen. Success will hinge not only on transistor density or process nodes but on how effectively ecosystems share knowledge, infrastructure, and intent.

One layer at a time

“Every chip we build,” Ang said in closing, “is a bridge between imagination and impact.”

That bridge is widening as the industry redefines what silicon can do—and how responsibly it can do it. From wide-bandgap power devices to AI accelerators and edge-to-cloud connectivity, the future equilibrium Ang describes is already taking shape across Asia’s fabs, labs, and design houses.

The road to a trillion-dollar semiconductor industry will not be paved by speed alone. It will be built layer by layer—with conscience, collaboration, and purpose.

“Let’s continue building the future,” Ang concluded, “one layer of silicon at a time.”

By: DocMemory
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