[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":439},["ShallowReactive",2],{"articles-understanding-semiconductor-supply-chains-[object Object]-published":3},{"name":4,"created_at":5,"published_at":6,"updated_at":7,"id":8,"uuid":9,"content":10,"slug":425,"full_slug":426,"sort_by_date":427,"position":428,"tag_list":429,"is_startpage":11,"parent_id":430,"meta_data":26,"group_id":431,"first_published_at":432,"release_id":26,"lang":32,"path":26,"alternates":433,"default_full_slug":434,"translated_slugs":435},"Understanding semiconductor supply chains","2026-02-16T14:16:20.502Z","2026-03-03T09:55:46.855Z","2026-03-03T09:55:46.873Z",145661052978789,"6cf0b06e-7d28-4419-99d4-d46cdb5aaea6",{"big":11,"_uid":12,"type":13,"pinned":11,"section":41,"tagline":404,"metatags":405,"overline":411,"component":412,"thumbnail":413,"additional_seo":417,"related_articles":418,"footer_cta_text_alt":422},false,"43d1daf6-9e44-4ad4-a10c-e756b640a4e2",[14],{"name":15,"created_at":16,"published_at":17,"updated_at":18,"id":19,"uuid":20,"content":21,"slug":24,"full_slug":25,"sort_by_date":26,"position":27,"tag_list":28,"is_startpage":11,"parent_id":29,"meta_data":26,"group_id":30,"first_published_at":31,"release_id":26,"lang":32,"path":26,"alternates":33,"default_full_slug":34,"translated_slugs":35,"_stopResolving":40},"Blog","2025-03-11T18:35:50.636Z","2025-08-25T10:43:23.591Z","2026-03-17T07:55:09.256Z",638707898,"64442308-f952-486c-9828-acfe7d854148",{"_uid":22,"component":23,"articles_page_title":15},"fa26946f-991a-4f78-9c9e-b1c074d74ecf","article_type","blog","de/artikel/typ/blog",null,-20,[],559406674,"095d1902-25d3-4d9f-9f72-eae04585b89c","2025-03-12T09:16:58.265Z","de",[],"articles/type/blog",[36,38],{"path":34,"name":26,"lang":37,"published":26},"fr",{"path":39,"name":26,"lang":32,"published":26},"artikel/typ/blog",true,[42],{"_uid":43,"title":4,"content":44,"subtitle":174,"component":403},"98eb847b-2e19-47ed-9eff-03c0bd068454",[45],{"_uid":46,"is_big":11,"content":47,"component":402},"8c77d545-5076-4cf8-a710-fa5e9c132d99",{"type":48,"content":49},"doc",[50,60,84,86,91,96,101,106,108,117,122,131,132,139,147,152,157,162,167,183,185,193,198,203,205,212,217,222,224,231,236,241,243,250,255,260,262,269,274,279,280,287,294,299,301,308,313,318,320,327,332,334,341,346,351,352,359,364,369,374,379,380,387,392],{"type":51,"attrs":52,"content":53},"paragraph",{"textAlign":26},[54],{"text":55,"type":56,"marks":57},"What the Taiwan Complex reveals about structural risk in semiconductor supply chains.","text",[58],{"type":59},"bold",{"type":51,"attrs":61,"content":62},{"textAlign":26},[63,67,69],{"text":64,"type":56,"marks":65},"Get full access to the report:",[66],{"type":59},{"text":68,"type":56}," ",{"text":70,"type":56,"marks":71},"Download the Taiwan Complex",[72],{"type":73,"attrs":74},"link",{"href":75,"uuid":76,"anchor":26,"target":77,"linktype":78,"story":79},"/the-taiwan-complex","868aa080-2cee-4452-8b3f-3cdffee5a6ca","_self","story",{"name":80,"id":81,"uuid":76,"slug":82,"url":82,"full_slug":83,"_stopResolving":40},"The Taiwan Complex",138905130556672,"the-taiwan-complex","de/the-taiwan-complex",{"type":51,"attrs":85},{"textAlign":26},{"type":51,"attrs":87,"content":88},{"textAlign":26},[89],{"text":90,"type":56},"Semiconductor supply chains are both critically important and widely misunderstood.",{"type":51,"attrs":92,"content":93},{"textAlign":26},[94],{"text":95,"type":56},"Even organisations with mature semiconductor supplier management and risk frameworks can mistake patterns in downstream behaviour as predictors for upstream disruptions. Risk may appear manageable at Tier 1, but many of the most impactful points of disruption sit far upstream in materials, equipment and highly specialised production.",{"type":51,"attrs":97,"content":98},{"textAlign":26},[99],{"text":100,"type":56},"A disruption in high-purity quartz production, for example, can restrict wafer supply and ripple through foundries, packaging, and downstream manufacturing. At the other end of the chain, delays in assembly and testing can prevent chips from reaching customers even when materials and fabrication capacity are available.",{"type":51,"attrs":102,"content":103},{"textAlign":26},[104],{"text":105,"type":56},"This gap between expected risk and actual exposure is the focus of The Taiwan Complex, Prewave’s latest report on semiconductor supply chain risk. The report examines why semiconductor disruption is difficult to identify early, how it escalates so quickly and why traditional risk narratives often fail to explain what is really happening.",{"type":107},"horizontal_rule",{"type":109,"attrs":110,"content":112},"heading",{"level":111,"textAlign":26},2,[113],{"text":114,"type":56,"marks":115},"What is the Taiwan Complex?",[116],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":118,"content":119},{"textAlign":26},[120],{"text":121,"type":56},"The Taiwan Complex is the tendency to reduce semiconductor supply chain risk to a single geography or crisis scenario. It simplifies a deeply interconnected system into one imagined point of failure, while overlooking upstream chokepoints across materials, equipment, wafer production and downstream processing.",{"type":51,"attrs":123,"content":124},{"textAlign":26},[125],{"text":126,"type":56,"marks":127},"Download the report to learn more",[128],{"type":73,"attrs":129},{"href":75,"uuid":76,"anchor":26,"target":77,"linktype":78,"story":130},{"name":80,"id":81,"uuid":76,"slug":82,"url":82,"full_slug":83,"_stopResolving":40},{"type":107},{"type":109,"attrs":133,"content":134},{"level":111,"textAlign":26},[135],{"text":136,"type":56,"marks":137},"Why semiconductor risk is hard to see",[138],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":140,"content":141},{"textAlign":26},[142],{"text":143,"type":56,"marks":144},"“The semiconductor industry operates through a highly fragmented and specialised global production system. Although commonly described in four stages: design, wafer production, front-end manufacturing and assembly, test and packaging (ATP/OSAT), the real value chain is far more complex.”",[145],{"type":146},"italic",{"type":51,"attrs":148,"content":149},{"textAlign":26},[150],{"text":151,"type":56},"Semiconductor supply chains do not behave like most industrial supply networks.",{"type":51,"attrs":153,"content":154},{"textAlign":26},[155],{"text":156,"type":56},"They are shaped by long qualification cycles, extreme capital intensity and tight coupling between materials, equipment, process technology and geography. Once production is underway, switching suppliers or production routes is slow and costly.",{"type":51,"attrs":158,"content":159},{"textAlign":26},[160],{"text":161,"type":56},"To make that complexity easier to understand, it helps to think of the semiconductor supply chain as a set of interconnected stages. With so many dependencies, stress in one part of the system often surfaces somewhere else entirely.",{"type":51,"attrs":163,"content":164},{"textAlign":26},[165],{"text":166,"type":56},"This is why semiconductor risk frequently feels sudden, even when early warning signals existed elsewhere in the system.",{"type":51,"attrs":168,"content":169},{"textAlign":26},[170,179],{"type":171,"attrs":172,"marks":177},"image",{"id":173,"alt":174,"src":175,"title":174,"source":174,"copyright":174,"meta_data":176},145670200911255,"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/297658/1780x1414/966bcbbb4b/taiwan-complex-blog-post-1-illustration.png",{},[178],{"type":146},{"text":180,"type":56,"marks":181},"Nodes in the semiconductor value chain.",[182],{"type":146},{"type":51,"attrs":184},{"textAlign":26},{"type":109,"attrs":186,"content":188},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},3,[189],{"text":190,"type":56,"marks":191},"Materials",[192],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":194,"content":195},{"textAlign":26},[196],{"text":197,"type":56},"The semiconductor chain begins with materials such as silicon wafers, specialty gases, photoresists and ultrapure chemicals. These inputs are produced by a small number of highly specialised suppliers and must meet extremely strict purity standards. Once a process is qualified, switching materials is rarely fast or practical.",{"type":51,"attrs":199,"content":200},{"textAlign":26},[201],{"text":202,"type":56},"High-purity quartz, for example, which is required to produce the quartz crucibles used to grow monocrystalline silicon ingots, must reach purity levels of 99.9995% to 99.9999%. There is no room for substitution, and nearly all global supply comes from two companies in one region. Because this step sits at the very top of the chain, any constraint flows downstream into wafers, fabs, OSAT providers and ultimately OEMs. ",{"type":51,"attrs":204},{"textAlign":26},{"type":109,"attrs":206,"content":207},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},[208],{"text":209,"type":56,"marks":210},"Equipment",[211],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":213,"content":214},{"textAlign":26},[215],{"text":216,"type":56},"Materials move through highly specialised tools for lithography, deposition, etching and inspection. These machines define what can be built and at what scale. Equipment production is concentrated among a small group of vendors, and capacity expansion takes years.",{"type":51,"attrs":218,"content":219},{"textAlign":26},[220],{"text":221,"type":56},"Each tool is qualified for specific device layers, a process that can take months or longer. As a result, fabs cannot easily switch suppliers without requalifying large parts of their process. This creates long-term lock-in. For many critical steps, there is only one viable supplier for the lifetime of a technology node. This lock-in shapes global capacity, pricing and how quickly new technologies can scale, and it means disruption at the equipment level often propagates widely across customers and regions.",{"type":51,"attrs":223},{"textAlign":26},{"type":109,"attrs":225,"content":226},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},[227],{"text":228,"type":56,"marks":229},"Wafer fabrication ",[230],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":232,"content":233},{"textAlign":26},[234],{"text":235,"type":56},"Before chips are made, wafers must be produced. Wafer manufacturers turn quartz crucibles, electronic-grade polysilicon and ultrapure chemicals into monocrystalline silicon ingots, which are then prepared for fabrication. ",{"type":51,"attrs":237,"content":238},{"textAlign":26},[239],{"text":240,"type":56},"Wafer production is capital-intensive and slow to expand. Equipment lead times are long, and operations depend on stable utilities and highly controlled environments. Disruption here quickly constrains the flow of material into fabs, packaging plants and downstream manufacturers. ",{"type":51,"attrs":242},{"textAlign":26},{"type":109,"attrs":244,"content":245},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},[246],{"text":247,"type":56,"marks":248},"Foundry ",[249],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":251,"content":252},{"textAlign":26},[253],{"text":254,"type":56},"As the most concentrated stage in the semiconductor chain, foundries are where upstream constraints turn into real manufacturing capacity limits. Only a small number of companies can manufacture chips at scale, and each technology node is tied to specific sites and regional ecosystems. ",{"type":51,"attrs":256,"content":257},{"textAlign":26},[258],{"text":259,"type":56},"Advanced devices below 7 nm depend on a handful of locations supported by tightly clustered suppliers and service providers. Foundries are well prepared for known risks like earthquakes or typhoons, but are still vulnerable to local shocks to the surrounding infrastructure and changes in relevant export policy. ",{"type":51,"attrs":261},{"textAlign":26},{"type":109,"attrs":263,"content":264},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},[265],{"text":266,"type":56,"marks":267},"Assembly, test and packaging",[268],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":270,"content":271},{"textAlign":26},[272],{"text":273,"type":56},"After wafers leave the fab, they must be cut, packaged and tested. This work is handled largely by OSAT providers, which perform dicing, wire bonding, advanced packaging and final electrical testing.",{"type":51,"attrs":275,"content":276},{"textAlign":26},[277],{"text":278,"type":56},"These stages are often treated as interchangeable or lower risk, but they are tightly linked to upstream production. Even companies that handle some advanced packaging in-house rely heavily on external partners. For fabless firms, OSAT represents almost the entire downstream chain. If packaging or test hubs are full, disrupted, or inaccessible, chips do not ship, even when foundry capacity is available.",{"type":107},{"type":109,"attrs":281,"content":282},{"level":111,"textAlign":26},[283],{"text":284,"type":56,"marks":285},"Where vulnerability forms in semiconductor supply chains ",[286],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":288,"content":289},{"textAlign":26},[290],{"text":291,"type":56,"marks":292},"“Even if direct chip purchases look diversified, many programmes and plants remain tied back to the same few upstream material clusters, equipment makers, and foundries. Without multi-tier visibility, these shared dependencies, or chokepoints, remain invisible until a disruption hits.”",[293],{"type":146},{"type":51,"attrs":295,"content":296},{"textAlign":26},[297],{"text":298,"type":56},"There are several structural characteristics that make semiconductor supply chains uniquely fragile.",{"type":51,"attrs":300},{"textAlign":26},{"type":51,"attrs":302,"content":303},{"textAlign":26},[304],{"text":305,"type":56,"marks":306},"Long and inflexible qualification cycles",[307],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":309,"content":310},{"textAlign":26},[311],{"text":312,"type":56},"Semiconductor production depends on components, materials and processes that take years to qualify. Even when alternative suppliers exist, switching in response to disruption is rarely possible in the short term.",{"type":51,"attrs":314,"content":315},{"textAlign":26},[316],{"text":317,"type":56},"Hidden concentration behind apparent diversificationSupplier diversification at Tier 1 often masks deep upstream convergence. Multiple suppliers may rely on the same materials, specialised tools, or production facilities, allowing risk to concentrate invisibly as supplier counts increase.",{"type":51,"attrs":319},{"textAlign":26},{"type":51,"attrs":321,"content":322},{"textAlign":26},[323],{"text":324,"type":56,"marks":325},"Disruption starts upstream, not at the fab",[326],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":328,"content":329},{"textAlign":26},[330],{"text":331,"type":56},"Constraints typically emerge in materials processing, equipment manufacturing, or downstream stages such as assembly, test and packaging. These early failures often remain invisible until pressure has already compounded across tiers.",{"type":51,"attrs":333},{"textAlign":26},{"type":51,"attrs":335,"content":336},{"textAlign":26},[337],{"text":338,"type":56,"marks":339},"Lead-time pressure surfaces late",[340],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":342,"content":343},{"textAlign":26},[344],{"text":345,"type":56},"Stress accumulates long before it appears in delivery data or customer-facing metrics. By the time delays are visible, the underlying disruption may be weeks or months old.",{"type":51,"attrs":347,"content":348},{"textAlign":26},[349],{"text":350,"type":56},"Taken together, these dynamics explain why semiconductor disruption escalates quickly and why mitigation options narrow so fast once exposure becomes visible.",{"type":107},{"type":109,"attrs":353,"content":354},{"level":111,"textAlign":26},[355],{"text":356,"type":56,"marks":357},"Why understanding your semiconductor supply chain is critical ",[358],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":360,"content":361},{"textAlign":26},[362],{"text":363,"type":56},"Semiconductors sit at the heart of modern manufacturing. Automotive production, industrial equipment, consumer electronics, energy systems and critical infrastructure all depend on reliable chip supply. In turn, production depends on a small number of upstream materials and production stages that are deeply interdependent and often invisible beyond Tier 1. ",{"type":51,"attrs":365,"content":366},{"textAlign":26},[367],{"text":368,"type":56},"Concentration exists long before chips reach a direct supplier, and by the time disruption becomes visible, options are already limited.",{"type":51,"attrs":370,"content":371},{"textAlign":26},[372],{"text":373,"type":56},"This creates a persistent gap between expected risk and actual exposure. Many organisations believe they understand their semiconductor risk because they can see their direct suppliers. In reality, the most binding constraints often sit several tiers upstream, outside traditional visibility and risk models.",{"type":51,"attrs":375,"content":376},{"textAlign":26},[377],{"text":378,"type":56},"True understanding of semiconductor supply chains is about seeing how exposure accumulates across the system, where disruption would hurt most, and how quickly it would propagate. ",{"type":107},{"type":109,"attrs":381,"content":382},{"level":187,"textAlign":26},[383],{"text":384,"type":56,"marks":385},"Get your copy of The Taiwan Complex",[386],{"type":59},{"type":51,"attrs":388,"content":389},{"textAlign":26},[390],{"text":391,"type":56},"The full report is available to download now. Gain a clearer view of how semiconductor supply chains actually function, why risk concentrates upstream and what that means for building meaningful supply chain resilience.",{"type":51,"attrs":393,"content":394},{"textAlign":26},[395],{"text":396,"type":56,"marks":397},"Download the report here",[398,401],{"type":73,"attrs":399},{"href":75,"uuid":76,"anchor":26,"target":77,"linktype":78,"story":400},{"name":80,"id":81,"uuid":76,"slug":82,"url":82,"full_slug":83,"_stopResolving":40},{"type":59},"c-text","m-section","Posted February 27, 2026 • 7 min read",{"_uid":406,"title":407,"plugin":408,"og_image":409,"og_title":407,"description":410,"twitter_image":409,"twitter_title":407,"og_description":410,"twitter_description":410},"f1fbc0ea-bbcb-495f-9ae2-ed2f1e3b0864","Semiconductor supply chain risk explained | Taiwan Complex Report","seo_metatags","https://a.storyblok.com/f/297658/2750x2200/cf68997d25/taiwan-post-banner.jpg","Automotive OEMs share upstream semiconductor dependencies. See how concentration in materials, equipment and fabs amplifies supply chain risk.","7 min read","article",{"id":414,"alt":174,"name":174,"focus":174,"title":174,"source":174,"filename":409,"copyright":174,"fieldtype":415,"meta_data":416,"is_external_url":11},145656390287889,"asset",{},[],[419,420,421],"234c9acd-a8f9-470a-b07d-36e42b65025a","a78aad56-a2ea-445c-b031-b652ca3bef1d","53b13c3a-c3ff-4e73-813c-88aa8576eb25",{"type":48,"content":423},[424],{"type":51},"understanding-semiconductor-supply-chains","de/artikel/understanding-semiconductor-supply-chains","2020-01-02",-460,[],545980964,"cd20761c-17f0-45d9-8925-80ab1fe8b954","2020-01-02T08:39:00.000Z",[],"articles/understanding-semiconductor-supply-chains",[436,437],{"path":434,"name":26,"lang":37,"published":26},{"path":438,"name":26,"lang":32,"published":26},"artikel/understanding-semiconductor-supply-chains",1775205597589]