Malaysia commands approximately 13% of global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test capacity and ranks among the world’s six largest semiconductor exporters, yet semiconductor companies listed on Bursa Malaysia represent only 1.7%* of total equity market capitalisation. This structural disconnect — between the sector’s weight in the real economy and its representation in domestic capital markets — lies at the heart of the financing challenge this report addresses.

The National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) sets an investment target of MYR500 billion, of which 95% must be mobilised from private sources. Achieving this requires more than industrial policy and foreign direct investment alone. Capital markets must be repositioned from a late-stage listing venue into an active, early-stage financing channel for Malaysia’s semiconductor ambitions — what the report terms Semiconductor 2.0.

This report proposes a dual-pronged capital market strategy to close the financing gap. The Acceleration Strategy focuses on the short to medium term, converting existing industrial substance into capital market participation through secondary and dual listings of multinational operations, strategic business-unit carve-outs, and a dedicated listing-readiness pathway for unlisted domestic Tier-1 suppliers. The Greenfield Strategy addresses the medium to long term, building the financing architecture needed to develop next-generation Malaysian semiconductor capabilities in IC design, advanced packaging and R&D-intensive activities, through instruments such as listed closed-end growth funds modelled on Business Development Companies, credit-enhanced bond and sukuk structures, Business Trust vehicles, and catalytic co-investment by GLICs and development finance institutions.

The two strategies are not alternatives but complements. Together, they create the conditions for Malaysia to transition from host to owner — from a model in which value accrues to offshore balance sheets, to one in which Malaysian capital, Malaysian institutions and Malaysian savers hold a growing share of the semiconductor value chain they have spent five decades building.

*as of April 2026