Elpida Memory Plans $4.56bn Investment for Largest Memory Chip Plant
Japanese manufacturer Elpida Memory is set to invest up to Y500bn ($4.56bn) over three years to build the world's largest memory chip plant, a move that highlights the pressure on D-Ram makers to boost investment to remain competitive. This massive investment will enable Elpida to leapfrog into the top ranks of a market dominated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology. The planned expansion will see the facility start mass production in autumn 2005, using state-of-the-art 300mm wafers, and will primarily manufacture memory chips for new digital products, including mobile telephones and televisions.
Key Takeaways:
- Elpida Memory will invest up to Y500bn ($4.56bn) over three years to build the world's largest memory chip plant.
- The planned facility will start mass production in autumn 2005, using state-of-the-art 300mm wafers, and will primarily manufacture memory chips for new digital products, including mobile telephones and televisions.
- Initial production will be about 10,000 wafers a month, rising to 60,000 a month by 2007.
- Elpida's move is a bid to leapfrog into the top ranks of a market dominated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology.
- Elpida, a joint venture between Hitachi and NEC, aims to start mass production at its new facility in Hiroshima.
- The company is still a small player in the market, with a share only a quarter as large as Infineon, the number-three producer.
- Elpida's planned initial public offering this year is a prerequisite for this investment.
Statistics:
- Y500bn ($4.56bn) investment over three years
- Initial production volume: 10,000 wafers a month
- Targeted production volume by 2007: 60,000 wafers a month
- Planned production capacity: 28,000 300mm wafers by the end of this year
Sources:
- Elpida Memory
- iSuppli, a US research group
- ING Securities in Tokyo
- Lex, Page 14