On Monday, Austin, Texas-headquartered commodity trading platform CAE, which bills itself as the industry’s first physical commodity marketplace just for semiconductor capital equipment and commodities, announced that it is aggressively expanding into the Asia-Pacific region, with the opening of new offices in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, Singapore, India and Australia. According to a company announcement on Monday, CAE is poised to triple its Asia-Pacific footprint over the next three years, and projects that 60 percent of its hiring this year alone will be based in the region.
“Asia is the most important market for the semiconductor industry. While its origins began as a viable manufacturing venue, it has grown into a set of ecosystems with advanced manufacturing, unique chip design, and broad test and assembly innovation,” said CAE Chief Executive Officer Ryan Jacob. “Asia is the highest growth market in the world for semiconductor manufacturing and a technology leader in both high-volume and niche manufacturing. As use cases grow and chips proliferate into cars, homes, energy and transportation infrastructure, industrial automation, healthcare and core communications, integrated circuits have become as central as air, in effect, to modern society.
“Asia has the most rapidly growing middle and consumer class, which means its native demand will complement Asia as a global force in chip production,” Jacob added. “We want to support the technological development happening throughout Asia…We are the most active semiconductor equipment and commodity trader in Asia. It is the highest growth piece in our business; therefore, we are thrilled to see both employee and customer adoption of our model and look to support both in the future.”
CAE began developing a transactional data set in 1980, and has since grown to become a technology-based, transactionally validated platform for end-to-end sourcing, due diligence, purchasing and logistics management for the semiconductor market. CAE’s platform organizes buyer and seller inputs into a single algorithmic matching system that monitors prices, market events, supply, demand and asset quality to create a safe and transparent market for its clients.
Today, its platform tracks over 535,000 assets inside fabrication facilities, warehouses, refurbishment companies and research centers worldwide, many on an exclusive basis. CAE also works with clients on over 250,000 active inquiries, which it says is the most extensive collection of supply and demand in the world.
The company also recently announced a major growth push in Europe, where it expects to double its presence over the next three years with new facilities in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The company already operates a hub in Budapest, Hungary, home to a growing trading team, data and decision science experts, logistics and transportation resources, which will serve as the base for its services to the European Union’s growing semiconductor industry. CAE also recently opened a new software development facility in Belarus.
