Toshiba has announced that it will be investing $3.2b to build a new semiconductor fabricating facility to produce BICS FLASH.
BICS FLASH is the Japanese manufacturer’s proprietary 3D flash memory. This new facility will be located near its Yokkaichi Operations memory production complex in Mie prefecture.
The company says that this investment will be made between financial years of 2016 and 2018.
It says that to produce the new BICS flash memory it requires a clean room with dedicated equipment for the 3D process.
The new facility will be completed during third quarter of 2016 and it will be used for producing the flash memory modules.
The company anticipates that with growth in demand for the memory modules, it will expand the facility to cater to the demand.
Toshiba believes that demand for 3D flash and NAND flash memory chips would rise as they are hold more memory than traditional flash memory and are used in smartphones, tablets and other devices.
The big ticket investment decision comes amidst losses and ongoing accounting scandal.
Some reports suggest that the company might rope in US based SanDisk for additional investment in manufacturing the NAND-flash memory modules.
Toshiba is under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its recent accounting scandal, where the company overstated its profits by more than $1b over a period of 7 years.
Apart from this, the company also wants to dispose off its non-profit making divisions such as healthcare and appliances and wants to concentrate more on core technology products.
Recently, Toshiba had sold off its medical equipment division to Canon for $5.9b after outbidding its rivals Fujifilm and Konica Minolta.
