In 2000, Sino-American Silicon Products, which had been making silicon ingots for semiconductors, saw that there was overproduction in that field and switched to making solar-energy silicon wafers. This move established them as Taiwan's pioneers of the upstream part of the production chain.
2000 年時，原本生產半導體晶棒的中美晶，眼見產能過剩，於是轉而投入太陽能晶圓的生產，算是上游先鋒（見 54 頁表）。