Taiwan's IC industry is another high-tech industry which has surged forward in recent years. Taiwan Semiconductor was the first to set up chip foundry operations and handles approximately 45 % of the world's foundry work. In addition, Taiwan is also in the vanguard in the areas of chip design, manufacture, packaging and testing. The island lags behind only the US and Japan, and is on a par with Korea.
個人電腦之外，半導體產業（IC）也是台灣近年來快速崛起的高科技項目，除了藉由台積電首創的專業代工模式，掌控了全球約百分之四十五的代工市場外，台灣的 IC 無論在設計、製造、封裝及測試各方面，都名列前茅，僅次於美國和日本，和南韓則在伯仲之間。