Intel Corp has assured long-term availability of memory chips for its customers by agreeing to form a majority-owned joint venture with Minebea Co’s NMB Semiconductor affiliate, which went public in Tokyo last year. The new Intel/NMBS DRAMS Fabrications Co will combine the manufacturing expertise of NMBS and the strength of Intel’s worldwide sales and marketing channel. NMB currently manufactures 256K-bit and 1M-bit dynamics in two highly-automated factories on an 80-acre site in Tateyama City, Japan, and a third factory is planned for 1M and 4M production there next year – and a fourth plant is planned for the US, although details of that are not yet set. The new company will be headquartered at Intel’s Santa Clara base and the parts will be sold under the Intel name. The new parts will be phased in in the third quarter, and Intel looks for $100m of business from the venture this year and over $300m in 1991. It is also keen to get access to NMB’s unmanned chip fabrication technology. As a coporate outsider – Minebea is regarded as a maverick company – NMB has found it difficult to penetrate the Japanese market.
