Nomura Asset Management says Malaysia is well-placed to capture more of the global semiconductor upswing by moving deeper into advanced packaging—a high-value, technology-intensive back-end segment vital for AI chips. Malaysia already has strengths in assembly and testing, a skilled workforce, ample industrial land, government incentives and geopolitical neutrality that attract firms like Infineon and Intel. Capacity constraints at firms like TSMC are creating outsourcing opportunities, giving Malaysia a near-term window (about three years) to scale up as AI demand rises for both training and inference workloads.
Challenges include high technical complexity, capital intensity, intense global competition and geopolitical or macro risks that could cause sector volatility. Nomura remains constructive on semiconductors overall but cautions on possible corrections. Separately, Nomura’s local fund business has seen traction (the Nomura Global Syariah Semiconductor Equity Fund had RM1.2bn AUM as of July 31, 2026), but it has no plans yet to launch a Malaysia-only semiconductor fund.
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