Asian Tech Press (Apr. 20) -- TSMC's Japanese joint venture will officially begin construction of a chip factory in southwestern Japan this Thursday.

The world's largest chipmaker plans for the Japanese plant to start shipping in December 2024, its local subsidiary said.

The new plant is located in Kumamoto Prefecture's Kikuyo town, in the heart of Kyushu, and has the full support of the prefecture and town, which is a major reason why TSMC and its partners have finalized the construction of the plant here.

As planned, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc. (JASM), TSMC's Japan unit will hire about 1,700 people when the plant is completed, including 320 on loan from TSMC, and Sony will also send 200 employees from its Tokyo headquarters for a short time.

TSMC officially announced the establishment of a joint venture with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp. in Japan on November 9 last year.

The joint venture plans to invest about $7 billion to build a factory that will use 22 and 28nm processes to found wafers for related customers.

On February 15 of this year, TSMC said that Denso Corp., an automotive parts supplier, would invest $350 million in its joint venture with Sony in Japan, taking no more than 10% of the shares.

TSMC also announced at the time that the Japanese joint venture will add 12/16nm FinFET process, and the investment in the plant will also be increased to about $ 8.6 billion.

The monthly production capacity of the factory will be increased from 40,000 12-inch wafers to 55,000 wafers after completion, TSMC said.