Global chipmakers expand into Japan as technology decoupling accelerates

Featured Sponsor

Store	Link	Sample Product
UK Artful Impressions	Premiere Etsy Store

Seven of the world’s largest semiconductor makers have outlined plans to ramp up production and deepen technology partnerships in Japan as Western allies step up efforts to reshape the global chip supply chain amid rising tensions with China.

In an unprecedented meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the heads of chipmakers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and the US’s Intel and Micron outlined plans that could transform the outlook for the Japan to re-emerge as a semiconductor power plant.

Micron said it plans to invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.7 billion), including Japanese state subsidies, to build a plant to produce state-of-the-art extreme ultraviolet lithography technology in Hiroshima.

Samsung is also discussing the creation of a ¥30 billion research and development center in Yokohama with pilot lines for semiconductor devices. Japanese government officials said the move followed a thaw in relations between Tokyo and Seoul. Samsung was unavailable for comment.

“Japan’s role has grown as like-minded nations work to strengthen their supply chains,” said Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s economy, trade and industry minister, after meeting with government officials. chip CEOs. “We have reconfirmed the strong potential of the Japanese semiconductor industry.”

The announcement comes as Japan prepares to host a G7 summit where economic security will be the focus of the talks. Semiconductors in particular have emerged as an area of ​​intense concern for the United States and its allies.

THE easing of long-standing tensions between South Korea and Japan comes as the United States has deployed significant diplomatic capital to urge closer alignment among its allies in the region against the perceived threat of China’s expanding military and technological powers and to reduce reliance on chips made by TSMC and others in Taiwan .

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, also expressed the possibility of more investment in Japan after it agreed to build a new plant in southwestern Kumamoto prefecture.

Nishimura also referred to conversations with Intel about increased cooperation with Japanese chip makers and said they have discussed cooperation between Applied Materials, IBM and Japan’s Rapidus.

The gathering of chip makers in Tokyo adds further definition to the industrial blocs that are emerging as soured US-China relations continue to produce signs of decoupling in global supply chains.

“Investing in secure supply chains and a strategic partnership for your economic and national security is the cornerstone for addressing economic coercion,” Rahm Emanuel, US Ambassador to Japan, told the Financial Times.

Under an economic security law that Japan enacted last year, the government has declared semiconductors an essential commodity for daily life and economic activity.

Nishimura said the government would use 1.3 trillion yen allocated in Japan’s supplementary budget last year to support pledges made by foreign chip makers.

In front of the G7 summit, Kishida will meet with US President Joe Biden on Thursday. The leaders of the two countries are expected to announce a $70 million deal to educate and train 20,000 semiconductor engineers at 11 universities in the United States and Japan, including Purdue University, Hiroshima University and Tohoku University, according to a person involved in discussions.

Japan’s use of generous subsidies to attract chipmakers is tempered by concerns that efforts to expand the semiconductor industry will be undermined by the country’s dwindling workforce, including a chronic shortage of engineers.