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Technology Stocks : Alliance Semiconductor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DJBEINO who wrote (9103)	1/12/2001 8:41:25 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9582

UMC, Sharp to inject 26B yen into UMC Nippon Semiconductor Taipei, Jan. 11, 2001 (CENS)--United Microelectronics Corp. and Japan's Sharp plans to jointly inject another 26 billion Japanese yen into UMC Nippon Semiconductor to boost its production capacity, UMC chairman John Tsuan said Thursday. UMC Nippon Semiconductor of which UMC, the world's second largest dedicated chip foundry, purchased from Nippon Steel in late 1998, currently has a monthly production capacity of 2.80 million eight-inch wafers. The capital expansion is aimed at boosting the foundry plant's capacity to four million eight-inch equivalent wafers, Tsuan said. It cost UMC only NT$6.4 billion in the acquisition deal two years ago, and the market value of UMC Nippon Semiconductor has since surged to about NT$36.2 billion. UMC Nippon was acclaimed as being the third best potential stock in Japan's over-the-counter stock market in 2001. Tusan attributed UMC Nippon's hefty growth to its successful transformation into the production of driving ICs for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and flash memory chips. Meanwhile, UMC Nippon will also advance its wafer manufacturing technology to 0.18-micron this year from the previous levels ranging from 0.21-micron to 0.35-micron. ++++++++++++++++++ Foreign IDMs to invest in UMC's 12-inch fab Taipei, Jan. 11, 2001 (CENS)--John Hsuan, chairman of United Microelectronic Corp. (UMC) of Taiwan, on Wednesday said that one or two foreign integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) would invest in its planned 12-inch wafer foundry in Singapore. Hsuan, however, declined to confirm the new investors as NEC of Japan or AMD of the U.S. UMC announced plans in mid-December last year to establish the world's most advanced 12-inch wafer foundry in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park. Infineon Technologies AG of Germany signed a memorandum of understanding, planning to take a minority stake in this company. The foundry will cost an estimated US$3.6 billion to complete and is to be operated as a subsidiary of UMC. As the chip industry begins to upgrade to 12-inch wafer technology, most major IDMs in the world have sought to form cooperative ties with Taiwanese chipmakers, such as UMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp., to jointly develop the capital-intensive business. With a price tag of over US$3 billion, the 12-inch wafer facilities are too expensive for most companies to set up independently, an industry source said. AMD president Hector Ruiz recently announced that his company would partner with other firms in the semiconductor industry to set up two 12-inch wafer foundries, each of which costs about US$4 billion. The facilities will be used to make microprocessors and flash memory. Candidate firms, he said, would need to be industry leaders both in technology development and manufacturing--conditions that seem to short-list TSMC and UMC, according to an industry insider here. The source said that AMD might set up a foundry in Taiwan. The U.S. chipmaker plans to first establish a joint venture wafer foundry in California to produce high-end microprocessors. The facility is slated to begin operation in 2004. TSMC is now preparing to begin construction of three 12-inch wafer foundries. A local investment consultant said that the company might let its affiliate Vanguard International negotiate with AMD or NEC over possible alliances in 12-inch wafer projects in order to avoid a backlash from its other clients.