Japan to provide $4.86 billion in incentives for chip

Japanese Economy Minister Ken Saito said that the Japanese government will provide an additional subsidy of 732 billion yen (4.86 billion dollars) to TSMC to expand its factory in the country.

Saito, speaking at the opening ceremony of TSMC's Kumamoto factory, said, 'TSMC is the most important partner in Japan's digital transformation, and the Kumamoto factory makes a significant contribution to consistently supplying state-of-the-art chips, which are highly necessary for the future of industries in Japan.'

The chip manufacturer, Taiwan's largest company, plans to start shipping CMOS camera sensors and chips for automobiles from the facility in Kumamoto on the Kyushu island by the end of this year through a partnership it has set up with iconic local companies such as Sony and Toyota. The government has already allocated 476 billion yen for the factory.

The new incentive will be spent on the construction of a new production building next to the existing building, which is TSMC's first factory in Japan. The project, announced by TSMC earlier this month and known as TSMC Fab-23 Phase 2, will produce chips up to 6 nanometers and aims to start mass production by 2027.