Power, Partnerships, and the unspoken Role of Supply Chains: VCA at SEMICON SEA 2025
26 May 20256 min read
Summary
- The Value Chain Asia team attended SEMICON Southeast Asia 2025 in Singapore, where the scale and energy of the event reflected the semiconductor industry’s central role in shaping the future. At the CEO Summit, leaders from Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, and Infineon Technologies underscored the urgent need for collaboration to address the growing complexity and energy demands driven by AI.
- Applied Materials’ Dr. Prabu Raja called for a 10,000-fold improvement in energy efficiency over the next 15 years, warning that current computational trends could overwhelm global power capacity. GlobalFoundries’ Tim Breen highlighted that even as AI hardware advances, data connectivity lags behind, making silicon photonics critical to unlocking performance and enabling meaningful cross-border innovation.
- Infineon’s Dr. Rutger Wijburg warned that data centers could consume the world’s total energy output within the next decade, exposing the fragile balance between digital ambition and physical infrastructure. The question now facing the industry is who will build the energy systems to sustain this growth, as the future of technology may hinge less on digital capability and more on the power to keep it running.
The Value Chain Asia (VCA) team had the opportunity to sit through three presentations at this week’s SEMICON Southeast Asia (SEA) event, held from May 20 to 22, 2025, at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. For the uninitiated, it was easy to be blown away by the scale of the event. From Basement 2 to Level 3 of the venue, it was packed wall-to-wall with exhibitor booths, presentations, panels, and career tracks. There was a palpable sense that this industry is not only alive, but driving a lot more than just innovation — it was defining the future. We were especially keen to attend the CEO Summit on Day 1, where global leaders spoke under the theme “Stronger Together – Collaborating to Navigate Uncertainties and Fostering Resilience.” Three talks in particular stood out to us — not just for what they revealed about where the industry is going, but for the open-ended questions they left.
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