French Silicon Night 2026 - French Tech Taiwan

Held on the eve of SEMICON Taiwan, French Silicon Night 2026 will highlight the French presence and bring together the Team France and French Tech Taiwan community. The evening will welcome Frédéric Laplanche, the new Director of the French Office in Taipei, and feature Karen Yu, President of ITIC, following the announcement of a €50 million joint fund with Bpifrance as well as Pierre Chastanet of the European Commission and Bruno Paing, VP Europe at CEA-Leti. It will also showcase cutting-edge French and Taiwanese startups shaping the future of the semiconductor industry.

Through high-level discussions, industry perspectives, and presentations from cutting-edge French and Taiwanese startups, French Silicon Night will provide an opportunity to strengthen dialogue, showcase ongoing cooperation, and explore new partnerships across the semiconductor value chain.

Date: Tuesday, September 1
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Venue: Taiwan Tech Arena; 3F, No. 2, Nanjing E Rd 105, Section 4, Songshan District, Taipei City

Agenda

18:30 – 18:45

Opening Remarks

Frédéric Laplanche, Director of the French Office in Taipei

Frédéric Laplanche is a French diplomat born on July 21, 1970, with a distinguished career centered on Asia. A graduate in Chinese studies and of the Institute of Political Studies, he has served in numerous posts across the region, including First Secretary in Beijing, Head of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, and Ambassador to Malaysia from 2017 to 2021. After serving as Deputy Director General of Administration and Modernization at headquarters since 2023, he was appointed Director of the French Office in Taipei in August 2026. He speaks French, English and Chinese.

Cerise Phiv, Co-President, La French Tech Taiwan

Cerise Phiv is Co-President of La French Tech Taiwan. She is active within the organization since 2019, she has played a key role in strengthening connections between French and Taiwanese innovation ecosystems. She also serves as Secretary General of the French Foreign Trade Advisors in Taiwan.

18:40 – 18:50

Keynote on joint investments in Semiconductors between France and Taiwan

Karen Yu (余宛如), President, ITIC (Industrial Technology Investment Co.)

Karen Yu serves as the President of ITIC, the venture capital arm of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where she leads strategic investments across deep tech, semiconductor supply chains, advanced packaging, quantum technologies, and physical AI. She also concurrently serves as Chairman of Fontrip, Board Member of Taiwan Bio-Medical Manufacture Company (TBMC), Taiwan M&A and Private Equity Association as well as Monte Jade Science & Technology Association of Taiwan and Member of the Digital Economy Committee under Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs. Previously, she served as a Member of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan and Director General of the Taoyuan Department of Information Technology.

18:50 – 19:30

Panel Discussion

Panel discussion on Europe-France-Taiwan cooperation and partnerships in semiconductors.

Panelists

Pierre Chastanet, Head of Unit – Microelectronics and Photonics Industry at European Commission

Bruno Paing, VP Europe & International Public Affairs

Mr Paing has a substantial international (15 years abroad) and mixed public/private experience in private companies (Orange, Sagemcom), in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (scientific attaché in Taiwan in 1998-1999 and in Hanoi, Vietnam from 2002 to 2005) and in CEA since 2005.

He first promoted MINATEC innovation campus in Grenoble and then became CEA-Leti VP Industrial Partnerships to develop R&D programs with Industry. He also developed R&D partnerships with Japanese and American companies in Tokyo and California (Caltech, Pasadena) from 2013 to 2021, and then became International Relations Deputy Director at CEA Head Office in Paris-Saclay from 2021 to 2023. He now serves as CEA-Leti VP Europe & International Public Affairs in Grenoble.

Mr Paing is graduated from the French “CentraleSupelec” Engineering School (Master of Science in Engineering), from Lyon Business School / EM Lyon (Executive MBA), and was an auditor of CHEAD (French Diplomatic Academy) in 2025.

Philippe Notton, CEO @ SiPearl

Stephen Su, Senior Vice-President of ITRI

Moderator

Victoria Grellety, Economic Attaché of the Economic Department

19:30 – 19:40

Pitch session

Discover French and Taiwanese Startups presentations.

Aniah is a French deeptech startup based in Grenoble. The company specializes in vectorless, static, IC-scale transistor verification, aiming to massively reduce false errors while achieving full error coverage. Its flagship software, launched in June 2022, automates chip design checks and is used by major players. Aniah has been recognized as a laureate of the France 2030 program for its European EEcone project, aimed at developing environmentally sustainable microelectronics.

DIAMFAB builds the next generation semiconductors based on synthetic diamond. We are specialized in epigrowth, doping and design of components for the power electronics industry thanks to the superior electrical performance, record efficiency and high compactness of diamond.

IIST IST Inc. is a Taiwan-based company headquartered in Hsinchu, specializing in hardware security through Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) technology. PUF leverages nanoscale variations occurring during chip manufacturing to generate unique, unclonable digital identities, providing strong protection against device cloning and tampering. The company offers this technology as standalone chips, embeddable modules, and FIDO2-compliant USB keys, serving industries such as consumer electronics, Industry 4.0, automotive, and healthcare IoT.

Nellow is a French deep-tech startup based in Grenoble, spun off from CEA and CNRS research labs. The company is developing microelectronic AI and logic chips based on a new technology combining quantum materials and ferroelectricity, aiming to reduce chip energy consumption by orders of magnitude. Backed by over 6 patents and with more than €10M already invested in the technology, Nellow aims to reduce chip energy consumption by a factor of 1000, targeting the massive AI and computing chip market.

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