Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) will continue investing in Japan and strengthening cooperation with semiconductor partners in the country, chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said yesterday in a statement.
The statement was released after Liu and several top executives from global chipmakers met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo to talk about deepening semiconductor cooperation.
The meeting took place a day before the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations gather in the southwestern city of Hiroshima for a three-day summit from May 19-21.
Photo: Bloomberg
Executives from Micron Technology Inc, Applied Materials Inc, IBM Corp and Intel Corp took part in the meeting, according to Japanese media reports.
Also attending the meeting were representatives from South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co and Belgium semiconductor research group Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), the reports said.
In his statement, Liu said Japan has a "unique" and "important" position in the global semiconductor ecosystem and TSMC will continue to invest in the country to promote the long-term development of the Japanese semiconductor industry.
Liu added that the company looks forward to furthering cooperation with Japanese semiconductor partners through various innovative measures, without elaborating.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, is currently constructing its first foundry in Kumamoto Prefecture in Southern Japan, in partnership with Sony Group Corp, a Japanese conglomerate producing consumer electronics products.
The chip plant, which is estimated to cost US$8.6 billion, is expected to begin production of chips made using the 12nm, 16nm, and 22nm processes, as well as on the 28nm specialty technology next year.
Media outlets have also reported that TSMC is planning a second foundry in Japan to build higher-end chips.
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