Japan's memory semiconductor corporations Kioxia will invest more than 1 trillion yen (870 billion won) to build a new semiconductor plant in Iwate Prefecture.
Nikkei reported on the 27th that Kioxia's management will visit the prime minister's office that day and are expected to officially announce the new plant construction plan.
Kioxia's memory production bases are in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, and Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture. This investment will be made by building a third building on the Kitakami plant site. Operations are expected to begin after 2029. Kioxia President Ota Hiroo said at an investor briefing in June that the company had begun discussing building a new plant with a view to starting operations after 2029.
The new plant will be built as a joint investment with SanDisk of the United States, and subsidies from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are also expected to be injected. The plant will mass-produce NAND flash memory used for long-term data storage. Nikkei said Kioxia has begun sounding out some suppliers, such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment companies, about introducing equipment for the new plant.
Kioxia ranks third in the NAND market after Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. As Korean corporations recently announced large-scale investments one after another, attention has focused on how Kioxia would respond.
The Sanae Takaichi government of Japan is moving to rebuild the semiconductor industry in line with expanding demand for artificial intelligence (AI). It plans to execute a total of 370 trillion yen (3,202 trillion won) in public-private investment across 17 strategic sectors by 2040, of which investment in the semiconductor industry is said to reach 68 trillion yen (580 trillion won). Nikkei assessed that Kioxia's construction of the new plant responds to government policy by expanding supply capacity.