Sony executives say its demand for semiconductors is much higher than the capacity of TSMC's Japanese plant, and has not decided whether to invest in the latter's new plant.

CTOnews.com, June 23, according to Bloomberg, Sony semiconductor solutions company CEO and president Shimizu said today that Sony's semiconductor demand is much higher than TSMC's wafer capacity in Kumamoto, Japan.

Reported that Sony Semiconductor Solutions is TSMC Kumamoto's first wafer joint venture partner. The Daily Industry News has reported that as TSMC's planned Kumamoto No.2 plant will introduce advanced EUV technology, the construction cost will be high and the total investment will exceed 1 trillion yen (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 50.4 billion yuan).

According to reports, Wei Zhijia, president of TSMC, said at the financial meeting in January this year that he was considering building a second fab in Japan, but only if there was demand from customers and reasonable support from the Japanese government.

The report also said that TSMC has informed Sony that it is considering the possibility of building a second fab in Japan, while Sony has not yet decided whether to invest. Shimizu pointed out that Sony's semiconductor demand is much higher than TSMC's Japanese wafer production capacity, and Sony will first buy further factory land in Kumamoto this year for its CMOS image sensor business. At present, Sony has operated five 12-inch wafer factories in Japan.

▲ drawing source: TSMC

CTOnews.com has previously reported that Sony Semiconductor bought 270000 square meters of land in Kumamoto in the first half of this year alone, equivalent to five Tokyo Dome stadiums, and sources said Sony intended to build a "semiconductor Ginza" in Kyushu.