The Japanese government yesterday approved ￥774 billion (US$6.8 billion) in funding for domestic semiconductor investment, backing up Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s commitment to make the nation a major global provider of essential computer chips.
The package, part of an extra budget for this fiscal year that the Cabinet approved yesterday, consists of three parts: ￥617 billion to fund domestic investment into cutting-edge chip manufacturing production capacity, ￥47 billion for legacy production such as analog chips and power management parts, and ￥110 billion for the research and development of next-generation silicon.
Tokyo is to spend part of the ￥617 billion package on a planned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co-Sony Group Corp plant in Kumamoto Prefecture.
While the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has not elaborated on the exact amount that is to be used for the project, it has said it would pay “up to half” of the total investment needed for a project in this category.
For legacy chip production, aid for up to one-third of the total capital expenditure would be provided, the ministry said.
The approved budget is just the beginning of increased investment in the sector, with Japan’s ruling party and government making it a priority to support companies beefing up semiconductor production.
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
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