[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is visiting Taiwan to request semiconductor support.
According to Taiwanese media such as ETtoday on the 13th, CEO Musk is scheduled to visit Realtek, located in the Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan, using a private jet.
A source in the industry stated that Tesla is currently facing difficulties in the supply of semiconductors from Realtek, and Musk is visiting personally to resolve this issue.
However, the exact date of Musk's visit to Taiwan has not been disclosed.
Taiwanese media reported that manufacturers of Chromebooks and laptops, which run Google's Chrome OS optimized for relatively simple applications, are struggling due to a shortage of microchips produced by Realtek.
Accordingly, Taiwanese media interpreted Musk's visit to Taiwan as being in the same context as letters sent to Taiwan by US and European authorities, the Vice President of Brazil, and senior executives of PC manufacturers Dell and HP to address the semiconductor shortage issue.
Foxconn Technology, whose major shareholder is Hon Hai Precision Industry Group, the world's largest electronics OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) company, had previously sent its CEO to visit Realtek to request supply volumes.
Founded in 1987, Realtek has researched and developed communication network IC (integrated circuit) chips, voice signal chips, display control chips, and UWB (Ultra-Wideband) chips.
In particular, Realtek holds a remarkable 90% share of the global audio codec microchip market, used in laptops, servers, industrial computers, and automotive electronics.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
