Tuesday, June 3, 2003
Intel said it will invest $100 million in Elpida Memory, giving a lifeline to the money-lossing memory maker. Elpida, a 50-50 joint venture between NEC and Hitachi, has been urgently seeking funds to expand a cutting-edge plant and project to start turning a profit by the end of the year.
NEC and Hitachi also said they plan to invest an additional $80 million. The investments puts Elpida about $250 million toward its goal of raising $670 million through equity deals to boost output.
Elpida said in a joint statement with Intel that it plans to use the funds to significantly boost production of 300mm wafers at its Hiroshima plant, which began operations in January. The output of the plant will be increase from the originally 3,000 wafers per month to 15,000 per month by the end of March.
The greater volume would help the company cut production costs per chip, helping it become competitive and profitable at a time when the semiconductor industry is struggling amid sluggish world economy.
The company plans to produce high-speed, 512 megabit DDR2 SDRAM chips as early as the July-September quarter.
By: DocMemory
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