SINGAPORE: Semiconductor industry players have committed more than S$500 million (US$390 million) to research and development projects in Singapore over five years from 2026.

This exceeds the more than S$400 million spent on such efforts between 2020 and 2025, according to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

It comes as the country looks to sharpen its edge in advanced chip technologies and help local firms compete in a capital-intensive industry.

Professor Yeo Yee Chia, A*STAR’s deputy chief executive for innovation and enterprise, said Singapore has “one of the most well organised and coordinated ecosystems” globally.

“That's what we think is going to make a difference when companies select a location where they can grow their R&D and their business,” he added. THE NEXT FRONTIER IN CHIPMAKING Singapore already accounts for about one in every 10 chips made globally, following years of investment in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D.

But the rise of artificial intelligence is placing new demands on chipmakers, just as the conventional route to making computers faster is becoming more difficult.

But the rise of artificial intelligence is placing new demands on chipmakers, just as the conventional route to making computers faster is becoming more difficult. For decades, the industry improved computing performance by packing ever more transistors onto a chip, broadly following a trend known as Moore’s Law.

When the trend was first observed in the 1960s, transistors were measured in micrometres. Today, some chip features are just dozens of atoms thick, reaching scales where quantum effects become more significant. Pushing the limits further has become increasingly technically challenging and expensive.

Singapore has spent more than a decade developing technologies that could provide alternative ways to improve computing performance.

“I think the next battle will be fought on advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration, chiplets,” said Mr Ravi Krishnaswamy, managing director for Asia-Pacific at growth consulting and market intelligence firm Frost & Sullivan.

“These are areas where I think more economic value-add opportunities will emerge.” Such technologies would allow more components to be packed closely together, shortening the distance data has to travel and potentially reducing energy use. Other areas of research include photonics, which uses light rather than electrical signals to move data more efficiently for data-hungry AI systems, as well as chips designed to handle the enormous power requirements of data centres BUILDING AN INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEM A*STAR is also seeing “an increasing pipeline” of overseas companies without a presence in Singapore coming here to work with existing partners, Prof Yeo said.

Other areas of research include photonics, which uses light rather than electrical signals to move data more efficiently for data-hungry AI systems, as well as chips designed to handle the enormous power requirements of data centres BUILDING AN INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEM A*STAR is also seeing “an increasing pipeline” of overseas companies without a presence in Singapore coming here to work with existing partners, Prof Yeo said.

Mr Krishnaswamy said Singapore’s advantage may lie in its ability to combine different capabilities. “So it doesn't need to be one niche. I think we can probably bring a lot of these things to the table as an integrated ecosystem capability,” he added.

Infrastructure is another part of the equation. A*STAR is looking to invest in next-generation tools that firms can tap to gain a competitive advantage. “By providing our infrastructure, by providing our talent and technology development capabilities, we want to accelerate the companies’ capabilities to go from research to development to manufacturing at speed and at scale,” Prof Yeo said.

LOWERING THE BARRIERS TO INNOVATION In an industry where global giants spend billions on facilities and talent, small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore’s semiconductor sector need every edge they can get.

“We want to allow such companies to have an unfair advantage,” Prof Yeo said. “By allowing them to leverage our investment, it lowers the barrier to their R&D and to their ability to innovate and provide solutions.” Singapore metalens firm MetaOptics is one company that has tapped that support for talent, intellectual property and R&D efforts.

Its CEO Aloysius Chua said raising money remains difficult for young technology companies, regardless of where they are based.

“I think our early supporters are some of the SMEs in Singapore, and then also we have strong support from A*STAR,” he said.

MetaOptics, which has since gone public and taken its products overseas, develops technology for producing flat optical components that can be used in applications ranging from cameras and sensors to high-speed computing connections.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer NexGen Wafer Systems has similarly benefited from access to shared infrastructure.

Its CEO Cheung Ting Kwan said building all the facilities the company requires itself would mean investing in its own clean room and other specialised equipment. “If we do it ourselves, this becomes quite prohibitive, expensive for a small- and medium-sized company like us,” he said.

FROM TECHNOLOGY TO CUSTOMERS But access to infrastructure and talent solves only part of the problem.

For Singapore semiconductor companies, another obstacle is finding enough customers to turn specialised technologies into sustainable businesses. Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a Singapore company working in silicon photonics, was acquired by multinational chipmaker GlobalFoundries last year.

Finding customers for niche technologies was a challenge, said AMF co-founder Patrick Lo.

"We like to build the fab infrastructure, but want it to be fully utilised,” said Mr Lo, who is now a senior fellow of technology development and advanced photonics at GlobalFoundries.

“That full utilisation will be absolutely coming from the application side. This is something I like Singapore as a whole, actually, to have more designers come up, more product developers to leverage.” It is a challenge some companies are also grappling with as they try to translate breakthroughs into commercial products.

“That full utilisation will be absolutely coming from the application side. This is something I like Singapore as a whole, actually, to have more designers come up, more product developers to leverage.” It is a challenge some companies are also grappling with as they try to translate breakthroughs into commercial products.

“Maybe people get a lot of funding, but what's after?” Mr Chua said. “If I develop the technology to what it is, and I cannot commercialise it, then I think as a company we've failed.”