SanDisk Corp has made a further $11m investment in the Taiwanese United Silicon Inc joint venture eight-inch wafer fabrication plant, maintaining its 10% stake. USIC has just completed a new $110m round of financing for the venture. Other partners are Xilinx Inc, Alliance Semiconductor Corp and Taiwan’s Realtek Semiconductor Corp, as well as Taiwanese parent company UMC Group. USIC has started 0.25 micron foundry production, and is developing 0.18 micron and copper interconnect process technology. Sandisk invested $40m in the venture in July 1997. Xilinx invested $67.4m in fiscal 1998, and held a 25% stake in June. Alliance had originally committed to a 10% stake, but after its most recent $3.1m payment last month owned just 2.96% of the outstanding shares in July.
