Taiwan's 3rd Largest Foundry PSMC Also Establishes Semiconductor Plant in Japan: "A Catalyst for Japan's Revitalization"

Automotive Semiconductor Manufacturing... 28nm Production Target

Japanese financial holding company SBI Holdings has partnered with Taiwan's semiconductor foundry (contract manufacturing) company PSMC to establish a semiconductor factory in Japan. As investments increase for producing low-spec semiconductors for automobiles following high-performance semiconductors, Japan is emerging as a new semiconductor supply chain in earnest.

On the 6th, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that the previous day, Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman of SBI, and Huang Chung-lun, chairman of PSMC, held a joint press conference and announced plans to establish a new semiconductor company through joint investment and build a factory in Japan. The factory plans to leverage the strengths of PSMC, the third-largest foundry company in Taiwan, to manufacture low-spec semiconductors used for automobiles and industrial equipment. Nikkei stated, "Thousands of billions of yen will be invested in the factory construction, and it is expected to start operations as early as the mid-2020s."

Hwang Chung-run, Chairman of PSMC (left), and Yoshitaka Kitao, Chairman of SBI, are shaking hands. (Photo by NHK)

Founded in 1994, PSMC started with the DRAM business and currently focuses on logic (system) semiconductors. In the foundry sector, it ranks third in Taiwan and within the top 10 globally. Asahi Shimbun analyzed, "PSMC is a company particularly strong in automotive-specific semiconductors," and "The partnership with a world-leading Taiwanese company will be an opportunity to revitalize Japan."

The investment ratio and the location of the factory are still under review, and no specific plans have been announced yet. However, Chairman Huang stated at the press conference, "Once the factory site is decided, we can supply semiconductors with a circuit line width of 28 nanometers (nm; 1 nm = one-billionth of a meter) within two years." PSMC has mainly produced semiconductors with circuit line widths of 40 nm or more, but plans to start developing 28 nm for mass production at the Japanese factory.

Chairman Huang added, "This is a great opportunity to enter Japan. Establishing a production base in Japan will lead to stable supply of Japanese semiconductors," and "For success, not only technological capability but also financing is important. We have high expectations for SBI."

Chairman Kitao emphasized, "To revive Japanese semiconductors, it is important to build a robust system," and "We want to make Japan a key point in the global semiconductor supply chain."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Currently, Japan is focusing on building bases for semiconductor production and research. The government’s commitment is strong. Earlier, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced in April a goal to triple the domestic sales of semiconductor-related industries to 15 trillion yen (135 trillion won) by 2030.

To achieve this, the government is actively supporting overseas companies as well. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has already invested 476 billion yen (4.305 trillion won) in the factory that Taiwan’s TSMC is building in Kumamoto.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.