In July 1968, Texas Instruments reached an agreement with the island’s government to build the first semiconductor factory in Taiwan. The first integrated circuits were produced in August 1969. By 1980, it had already produced a billion integrated circuits, flooding the world. Meanwhile, in 1973, Texas Instruments and National Semiconductors also chose Singapore for their integrated circuit factories. By the end of the 1970s, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia (particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines) would have tens of thousands of employees from American semiconductor companies.
