Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp yesterday announced plans to set up a joint venture — Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM) — to build a semiconductor fab in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture that would initially produce 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer chips.
TSMC’s board of directors yesterday approved a proposal for the company to invest up to US$2.12 billion that would give it a majority shareholding in the planned venture.
Sony Semiconductor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corp, is to invest US$500 million in JASM, giving it a less than 20 percent stake, it said in a joint statement with TSMC.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“The digital transformation of more and more aspects of human lives is creating incredible opportunities for our customers, and they rely on our specialty processes that bridge digital life and real life,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in the joint statement.
“We are pleased to have the support of a leading player and our long-time customer, Sony, to supply the market with an all-new fab in Japan, and also are excited at the opportunity to bring more Japanese talent into TSMC’s global family,” Wei said.
Construction of JASM’s fab in Japan is scheduled to begin next year, with production expected to commence at the end of 2024, the statement said.
The fab is expected to create about 1,500 jobs and to have a monthly production capacity of 45,000 12-inch wafers, it said.
The initial capital expenditure is estimated to be about US$7 billion, with strong support from the Japanese government, it said.
“While the global semiconductor shortage is expected to be prolonged, we expect the partnership with TSMC to contribute to securing a stable supply of logic wafers, not only for us, but also for the overall industry,” Sony Semiconductor president and CEO Terushi Shimizu said.
“We believe that further strengthening and deepening our partnership with TSMC, which has the world’s leading semiconductor production technology, is extremely meaningful for the Sony Group,” Shimizu added.
Separately, TSMC’s board also approved a capital budget of US$9.04 billion to install and upgrade advanced technology capacity, and to build mature and specialty technology capacity, advanced packaging capacity, as well as new fab facilities, the company said in a separate statement.
According to TSMC, part of the budget will be used to build a production facility for 7-nanometer and 28-nanometer processes in Kaohsiung next year, with mass production expected to begin in 2024.
The statement said the budget also covers capitalized lease assets, as well as investment in research and development, and other capital expenditures for the first quarter of next year.
TSMC shares rose 1.5 percent to close at NT$611 in Taipei trading yesterday, as the stock received a boost from reports that US-based client Advanced Micro Devices Inc has won an order from Meta Platforms Inc (formerly known as Facebook Inc) to supply the Epyc processor for data centers.
“TSMC’s lead over its peers in high-end technologies has put it among the ‘metaverse concept’ stocks,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by