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IMEC's Van den hove calls for closer chip ties ahead of tariff threats

Published: 18 Feb. 2025, 16:30 Updated: 19 Feb. 2025, 10:49

JIN EUN-SOO
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IMEC CEO and President Luc Van den hove poses with a wafer at a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday. [JIN EUN-SOO]

“Global collaboration” is key to the progress of chip technology, according to Luc Van den hove, president and CEO of global chip research firm IMEC, who condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's latest attempts to localize much of the supply chain in chip manufacturing by threatening to impose tariffs on imported products.

“I am very convinced that progress in chip technology has been the result of strong global collaboration,” he said during a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday.

“The evolution of geopolitical issues that we have seen in the last couple of years that lead to tension could lead to the attitude that each region tries to control everything. I'm convinced that if countries would kind of revert to a decoupling scenario and try to do it all on their own, this is going to result in a strong slowdown of the industry. This really makes no sense.”

IMEC, founded in 1984 in Belgium, is a world-leading research and development center of semiconductors that is engaged in active partnerships with chipmakers and academics. It operates research facilities worth 3 trillion won ($2.1 billion) with more than 5,500 professionals.

It is working together with 200 universities around the world to conduct long-term research and innovation. Its enterprise partnerships include Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as well, leading some 30 of their researchers to participate in projects of IMEC in Belgium.

As part of its latest effort to expand collaboration, it signed a partnership on internship programs with Korea's National Nanofab Center on Tuesday to dispatch 12 Korean graduate students to participate in IMEC's research projects.

The CEO suggested Korea “make the rest of the world dependent” on the country as a way of tackling risks accompanied by Trump's policies on the chip industry.

“Focus on your strengths and strengthen the strengths. Excellence, I believe, is the best guarantee for future success. So strengthen the strengths and collaborate globally," he added.

Trump's policy to turn the U.S. into a manufacturing powerhouse of semiconductors is leaving many chipmakers around the world uncertain about their future plans. He plans to impose tariffs on all imported chips as a way of bringing critical parts of the chip supply chain onto U.S. soil to win the global hegemony.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]