Sunday, November 20, 2005

Joint Chip Plant in Japan in 2007?

The Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting that five Japanese semiconductor makers, Hitachi, Toshiba, Matsushita Electric Industrial, NEC Electronics, and Renesas Technology, are planning a 65-nanometer wire width plant. It will be the first time Japanese manufacturers have done a joint chip plant.

Construction is expected to start next year, production in 2007 "at the earliest". Cost might be 200 billion yen (almost two billion U.S. dollars); the share to be paid by each company hasn't been determined yet. The article says it's necessary to keep the companies competitive in the face of "huge capital investments" by South Korean and U.S. manufacturers. I don't think they've picked a location yet.

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