Taiwan, Japan Firms Sign Chip Pact

On December 8, The Wall Street Journal Asia reported that Japan’s Elpida Memory and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. (PSC) are launching a joint venture.

According to the report, the two companies invested $15.5 billion each and established the new company on December 7. It is said that they will own the new business on an equal basis. They plan to set up four additional assembly facilities in the mid part of Taiwan and manufacture 240,000 semiconductor wafers per month starting in 2011.

Elpida Memory and PSC, the fifth and seventh largest DRAM manufacturers in terms of sales, respectively, set their target of outpacing Samsung Electronics, the world’s DRAM leader, through the new joint venture.

An official from Samsung Electronics commented, “Their combined market share is about 19 percent. Given that Samsung Electronics’ share is 28 percent, there’s still a significant gap.”

jaykim@donga.com