Apple camera component supplier Sony is considering joint investment of $7 billion in Apple supplier TSMC’s first chip plant in Japan, Nikkei reports Friday, citing “multiple people familiar with the matter.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and Sony are considering jointly investing about 800 billion yen ($7 billion) to build a semiconductor factory in western Japan, Nikkei has learned.
Sony may also take a minority stake in a new company that will manage the factory, which will be located in Kumamoto Prefecture, on land owned by Sony and in an area adjacent to the latter’s image sensor factory, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The factory will make semiconductors used in camera image sensors, as well as chips for automobiles and other products, and is slated to go into operation by around 2023, or 2024, the people said.
Plans for the facility — which would be TSMC’s first chip production operation in Japan — come as the global tech industry grapples with unprecedented semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruptions.
The Japanese government, which is increasingly concerned about maintaining supply chain stability amid the chip shortage and rising tensions surrounding the Taiwan Strait, will support the project with subsidies, Nikkei learned.
MacDailyNews Take: Offshoring chip fabrication was a national security failure for every nation not named Taiwan.
See also:
• Apple supplier TSMC to begin mass production of 5nm chips at new Arizona plant in 2024 – July 15, 2021
• Apple supplier TSMC to build multibillion-dollar chip plant in Arizona with Trump admin backing – May 14, 2020
• President Trump and Intel CEO announce $7 billion investment in next-gen semiconductor fab in Arizona; will create more than 10,000 jobs – February 8, 2017
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