Japan’s Toshiba Corp is to invest $50m in new Taiwanese chip maker Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (WSMC). The investment will make Toshiba one of five major shareholders in WSMC, which is capitalized at NT$17bn ($525.5m).
Last year, the two signed a seven-year agreement to transfer Toshiba technology in manufacturing products such as logic, SRAM, flash, mixed mode and embedded DRAM, according to WSMC vice president Benny Hu. He said the company also plans to use part of its capacity to form a future joint chip-processing venture with Toshiba. Toshiba has agreed to provide the venture with in-house equipment and technology, he said.
WSMC expects to raise output to its full capacity of 30,000 eight-inch wafers per month from the current 10,000 units by the end of the year.
