Powerchip looking at Japanese fab

SBI Holdings, a financial services group based in Tokyo, is to help Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) to set up a trailing edge foundry and advanced IC R&D centre in Japan.

SBI’s CEO Yoshitaka Kitao says SBI will set up a company for planning, fundraising – possibly including selling municipal bonds – and attracting government subsidies to set up the fab and research centre.

The fab will initially be set up to run 55nm and 40nm process but the intention is to move on to a 28nm process.

Renesas is currently scouting a number of locations.

“The government has spent ¥2 trillion over the past two years to develop domestic chip manufacturing capacity, but I think that’s too little,” says Kitao “we want to help revive Japan’s chip industry.”

In fact the Japanese government is spending $36 billion on the 2nm fab project Rapidus.

With the Japanese government feeling generous towards semiconductor investment, PSC chairman Frank Huang sees the advantages of the project as a weak yen, low labour costs and favourable financing.

Kitao sees it as: “The best possible time to enter chip manufacturing.”

Following in the footsteps of TSMC, PSC has embarked on a strategy of overseas expansion. It has a stake in a jv fab in Chengdu, China and is in talks about a fab investment in India.

Founded in 1999 as SoftBank Investment Co, SBI became independent from Softbank in 2006.