Intel to invest 100 million dollars in Japan's Elpida Memory

TOKYO (AFP) Jun 03, 2003
US chipmaking giant Intel has agreed to invest 100 million dollars in Japanese-DRAM maker Elpida Memory, which will use the money to expand the production capacity of a Japanese plant, the two firms said Tuesday.

In addition to the proposed investment, Elpida and Intel have signed a multi-year agreement, under which the companies will share "roadmaps" in order to develop new dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip architectures, they said.

"This proposed investment starts the process of raising the funding we need to increase our capacity to better support our customers' requirements," Yukio Sakamoto, president of Elpida Memory, said in a statement.

Intel is expected to take non-voting stock by the end of this year in exchange for the investment.

Elpida is a joint venture between Japanese hi-tech giants NEC and Hitachi.

Elpida plans to use the proceeds from Intel's investment and other intended financing to boost production at its 300-milimeter DRAM wafer fabrication plant in Hiroshima, Japan, the statement said.

The plant, which started operation in January, currently produces 3,000 300-milimeter wafers per month. Elpida hopes to increase it to 15,000 wafers per month by the end of this year.

"Continued investment in memory technology is strategically important for the industry," Gidu Shroff, Intel vice president and director of materials, said in the statement.

"Intel's investment will help enable Elpida to continue to develop and produce leading-edge DRAM products. It is important that cost effective memory technology advances as quickly as possible to meet the ever increasing performance demands of Intel computing and communications solutions."

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