Sony Immediately Build A Chip Factory In Kumamoto, U.S. Disadvantaged Market Content

JAKARTA - Sony Group Corp is considering building a new plant to create smartphone image sensors in Japan's Kumamoto prefecture. This was first reported by Japanese media, Nikkei on Thursday, December 15.

According to the report Sony plans to build a factory soon after 2024, and make it the fastest online by the fiscal year 2025. They added the company expects a cost of billions of dollars.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the report.

Japan, which has long lost control in chip manufacturing, particularly advanced semiconductors, is rushing to take advantage after Washington restricted Beijing's access to the technology and called on its allies to do the same.

Last month, Japan's ministry of industry and trade said it would invest 70 billion yen (7.9 trillion) in Rapidus, a new chipmaker backed by the country's government and led by technology companies including Sony and NEC Corp.

Sony plans to retrieve chips from the planned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chip factory in the area.