The semiconductor boom in Southeast Asia is usually measured in billions. Governments announce new fabrication plants, multinational manufacturers expand production lines and investors commit billions of dollars to new facilities. Malaysia alone recorded RM16.9 billion in approved semiconductor investments across 59 projects in 2025, creating more than 12,400 expected jobs. The country’s wider electrical and electronics sector attracted RM28.5 billion in approved investments during the same year.

Those figures tell only part of the story. Behind every wafer, packaged chip and advanced manufacturing line sits another layer of infrastructure that rarely makes the headlines but without which semiconductor production simply cannot operate reliably.

We explore why Southeast Asia’s martech sector is shifting from acquisition hype to unified data infrastructure

The factory behind the factory

Semiconductor manufacturing is unusually demanding because the production environment itself becomes part of the manufacturing process. A conventional factory can tolerate small variations in temperature, humidity, air quality or equipment performance without necessarily affecting the finished product. Semiconductor facilities operate under very different conditions. Tiny particles, traces of oil or moisture and fluctuations in pressure can affect processes taking place at microscopic scales. That makes cleanrooms, air treatment, vacuum systems, filtration and monitoring infrastructure as important to the production environment as the machines that actually process the wafers.

This is becoming more significant as Southeast Asia moves further into higher-value semiconductor activities. Malaysia has traditionally been particularly strong in assembly, testing and packaging, while Singapore has developed capabilities across manufacturing, research and advanced semiconductor technologies. As the region expands into advanced packaging, chip design and more sophisticated manufacturing, the infrastructure supporting those activities has to become more precise as well. We previously examined why Southeast Asia is betting big on semiconductors and how chip startups are joining the race. The next question is what happens underneath that investment boom: what does it actually take to keep these facilities operating around the clock?

Clean air is not just about the cleanroom

Air is one of the less obvious pieces of semiconductor infrastructure. Compressed air is used across semiconductor facilities for applications ranging from instrumentation and pneumatic tools to handling, testing, assembly, purging and other manufacturing processes. But ordinary compressed air is not enough for sensitive semiconductor production. Clean, dry air needs to be carefully treated to prevent oil, moisture and particles from entering processes where contamination can affect yields. This is why semiconductor manufacturers rely on specialised filtration, drying and oil-free compression systems.

The requirement also creates an infrastructure challenge. Semiconductor facilities operate continuously, meaning the supporting air systems need to be reliable around the clock rather than simply delivering adequate performance during normal operating hours. Atlas Copco, which supports industrial customers across Malaysia and the wider region, highlights clean, dry air as a critical requirement for semiconductor and electronics production. Its semiconductor solutions include oil-free compressed air, filtration and drying technologies designed to maintain the air quality required in sensitive production environments.

The issue is not simply cleanliness. Energy efficiency matters too. Compressing and treating air continuously can consume significant amounts of energy, making equipment efficiency increasingly relevant as semiconductor plants become larger and production volumes increase.

Vacuum is another invisible workhorse

If compressed air is one side of the equation, vacuum is another. Vacuum technology is used across semiconductor manufacturing for processes including wafer handling, testing, packaging and other equipment applications. Maintaining the right vacuum level is critical because fluctuations can affect process stability, equipment performance and contamination control.

The scale can also be considerable. A typical semiconductor facility can require thousands of cubic metres of vacuum flow per hour, with larger facilities requiring considerably more. These systems therefore cannot be treated as secondary equipment that can simply be switched off when something goes wrong.

Atlas Copco’s vacuum solutions for semiconductor manufacturing are designed around this requirement, with systems intended to provide stable vacuum levels and reliable operation in facilities where production can run continuously.

This is where the idea of “invisible infrastructure” becomes particularly relevant. A vacuum pump does not appear in the finished chip and neither does the compressor supplying clean, dry air. Yet both can have a direct impact on whether that chip is manufactured successfully.

Contamination control becomes harder as chips get more complex

The push towards AI, high-performance computing, connected devices and advanced automotive systems is increasing demand for more capable semiconductors. As manufacturing processes become more sophisticated, maintaining consistent production conditions becomes even more important.

Contamination is a particularly difficult problem because it is not always visible to the human eye. A cleanroom therefore has to control far more than visible dust. Air pressure, humidity, temperature, filtration and particle levels all have to be managed as part of a broader production environment.

The challenge extends beyond the cleanroom itself. Process gases, compressed air, vacuum systems, chemicals and water all need to meet the requirements of individual manufacturing stages. A weakness in one part of this chain can potentially affect the wider production process.

For manufacturers expanding in Southeast Asia, this means infrastructure planning has to happen alongside decisions about factories, equipment and production capacity. The supporting systems are not an afterthought. They form part of the operating model of the facility.

Malaysia’s semiconductor ambitions raise the stakes

Malaysia provides a useful example of how quickly the supporting infrastructure challenge can grow. The country has long been an important part of the global semiconductor supply chain and accounts for a significant share of global semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging activity. The investment is also shifting towards higher-value activities. New projects and expansions increasingly involve advanced packaging, research and development, wafer-related technologies and other capabilities that require more sophisticated production environments.

That creates opportunities beyond chip manufacturers themselves. Equipment suppliers, engineering companies, automation providers, maintenance specialists, filtration businesses and other industrial technology companies all become part of the ecosystem supporting semiconductor expansion. As facilities become more complex, the ability to maintain equipment and respond quickly to technical problems can become just as important as the initial capital investment.

This is one reason regional technical support matters. A highly sophisticated production line is only as useful as the infrastructure supporting it and downtime in semiconductor manufacturing can have consequences far beyond a single piece of equipment.

Reliability is becoming a competitive advantage

The next phase of Southeast Asia’s semiconductor growth will therefore involve more than attracting large investments. Countries will need the supporting ecosystems to make those investments productive. That includes electricity and water infrastructure, skilled engineers, cleanroom capabilities, process gases, industrial equipment, maintenance networks and specialised technical expertise.

It also means thinking about resilience. Semiconductor facilities cannot simply assume that every supporting system will perform perfectly forever. Backup capacity, preventive maintenance, remote monitoring and access to technical expertise can all play a role in reducing the risk of unplanned downtime.

For companies such as Atlas Copco, this creates a role that extends beyond supplying individual machines. Its portfolio across compressed air and vacuum technologies illustrates how industrial infrastructure providers are becoming part of the wider semiconductor ecosystem, helping manufacturers address reliability, contamination control and energy efficiency alongside production requirements.

The next semiconductor story may be about what we cannot see

Southeast Asia’s semiconductor expansion will continue to be measured through investment announcements, new factories, export figures and employment numbers. Those indicators are important but they do not capture everything required to make a semiconductor facility work. The less visible systems may ultimately determine how efficiently those investments translate into production.

Clean air, stable vacuum, contamination control, filtration, energy management and technical servicing are not particularly glamorous compared with the latest chip architecture. They are, however, essential to the manufacturing environment that makes advanced chips possible.

As Malaysia and its neighbours move further up the semiconductor value chain, the region’s competitive advantage will increasingly depend on this supporting infrastructure. The factories may be the most visible symbol of the semiconductor boom but the systems quietly running behind the walls could be what keeps that boom moving.