Science & Technology

Japan to allocate up to $ 3.5 billion to chip plant

Tokyo, Jun 17 (EFE).- Japan said Friday it would allocate up to JPY 476 billion ($ 3.5 billion) to finance the construction of a chip plant in the country managed by Sony and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Tokyo had already advanced its interest in investing in the factory, being built in Kumamoto prefecture and will be managed by the Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing joint venture, in which Japanese component manufacturer Denso, a Toyota group subsidiary, also participates.

The investment was revealed Friday by Japanese Economy Minister Koichi Hagiuda in a press conference defining the operation as “a large-scale subsidy” they hope will bear fruit in the long term.

Japan will collaborate with local authorities “to ensure that the factory takes root in the region and develops sustainably,” Hagiuda said in statements collected by public network NHK.

This is the first project to secure subsidies from a public fund of JPY 617 billion created to strengthen the chip industry in Japan, which also seeks to guarantee a stable national supply in the current context of scarcity of these components globally.

The total investment in the plant amounts to about $ 8.6 million, which implies that the Japanese public coffers will bear slightly more than 40 percent of the costs, although the exact amount of the subsidy is yet to be determined.

Construction work on the factory began in April and its operations are expected to start in late 2024. The plant will have a monthly output of 55,000 microchip sheets.

Sony is the world’s leading producer of image sensors used in mobile phones, computers or cars, while the Taiwanese firm is the world’s largest manufacturer of custom integrated circuits. EFE

mra-yk/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button