Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with the heads of the world’s largest chipmakers on Thursday in Japan’s latest move to bolster semiconductor manufacturing capacity at home amid a global rethinking of supply chains and economic security.
Executives from Micron Technology Inc. to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. told Kishida they would consider investing further in Japan, depending on the financial incentives offered and customer demand, according to Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura.
Intel Corp. chief Patrick Gelsinger and TSMC Chairman Mark Liu attended the meeting along with executives of Micron, Samsung Electronics Co., IBM and chip gear maker Applied Materials Inc.
“Japan has great potential when it comes to the semiconductor industry,” Nishimura told reporters after the meeting, adding that the country’s deep manufacturing base spanning chemicals to chip gear are a large draw for chipmakers.
Japan has been bolstering advanced chipmaking at home for cutting-edge chips as growing US-China tensions spur concerns about over-reliance on Taiwan, which China claims as its own. But its efforts have so far fallen short of subsidies offered by the US.
The Japanese government plans to provide financial support for Micron’s plan to invest as much as ¥500 billion ($3.6 billion) to build a next-generation memory chip plant in Hiroshima, Nishimura said. Japan would tap some of the ¥450 billion in the budget earmarked for chip-related spending, he said.
Micron was expected to get about $1.5 billion from Japan, according to people familiar with the matter.
The meeting took place as Kishida prepares to welcome leaders of the Group of Seven nations to a summit in Hiroshima. Shoring up and diversifying global supply chains will be among the topics on the agenda, as the grouping of rich economies grapples with the issue of how to build self-sufficiency in the tech space and reduce dependence on China.
Micron Is Said to Get $1.5 Billion From Japan for Next-Gen Chips
Japan’s government is already spending billions of dollars to encourage TSMC to add production capacity in the country, and to finance a domestic chip venture, Rapidus Corp., with aspirations to make 2-nanometer chips by 2027. The Micron deal will bring EUV equipment to Japan for the first time, a step toward cutting-edge manufacturing the government has sought.
Chip Industry Veteran Aims to Help Japan Build Its Own TSMC
Intel would likely partner with local materials makers eyeing “sustainable development,” Nishimura said. Samsung said it’s mulling more spending on R&D in Japan and expanding mid- to long-term cooperation with the country, while there was discussion with IBM about cooperation on quantum computing, he also said.
--With assistance from Takahiko Hyuga and Paul Jackson.
(Updates with details throughout)
