Singapore semiconductor players commit over S$500m to R&D from 2026
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, exceeding the over S$400 million spent between 2020 and 2025, according to A*STAR. The investment aims to sharpen Singapore's edge in ad
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). The commitment 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.
Singapore already accounts for about one in every 10 chips made globally, following years of investment in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. However, 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. Today, some chip features are just dozens of atoms thick, reaching scales where quantum effects become more significant.
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.” Other areas of research include photonics, which uses light rather than electrical signals to move data more efficiently for AI systems, as well as chips designed to handle the power requirements of data centres.
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. A*STAR is looking to invest in next-generation tools that firms can tap to gain a competitive advantage.
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, which has since gone public and taken its products overseas, has tapped that support. Its CEO Aloysius Chua said raising money remains difficult for young technology companies, regardless of where they are based.
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. That full utilisation will be absolutely coming from the application side,” said Mr Lo, who is now a senior fellow of technology development and advanced photonics at GlobalFoundries.
