Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, June 2, according to the Nippon Economic News, Sony Semiconductor intends to build a new plant the size of five Tokyo Dome Stadium in Hezhi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, with a total investment of more than 800 billion yen (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 40.64 billion yuan). When the plant is completed, together with the nearby TSMC Kumamoto factory, it will form the "semiconductor Ginza" of Kyushu.

▲ Touyuan: Sony reported that Sony Kumamoto's new factory, which will mainly produce CMOS image sensors, has bought 270000 square meters of land, the size of five Tokyo Dome stadiums. The new plant is close to Sony Semiconductor's existing Kumamoto No. 5 plant, the Kyushu plant created by semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Wilecco, and TSMC's Kumamoto plant under construction.

▲ source: Shimizu Shimizu, president of Sony Semiconductor, said it is difficult to see the demand trend of CMOS for smartphones in the future. He did not disclose details such as the start date and capacity of the plant, but stressed that he would be ready for the future. The total investment in the plant is between 800 billion and 1 trillion yen (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 50.8 billion yuan), equivalent to that of TSMC's Kumamoto plant, the magazine said, citing people familiar with the matter.

▲ source: Sony

At present, Sony's biggest competitor, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, is rapidly catching up. Sources point out that Samsung's mass production of the HP2 image sensor in 2023 caused a sensation within Sony, which uses advanced D-VTG technology, which was at the core of Sony's STARVIS 2 series of image sensors released in 2021. It is understood that STARVIS 2 series sensors are used in security and traffic recorders and other fields.

In addition, analysts at Daiwa Securities pointed out that Japan's lifting of restrictions on the export of semiconductor materials to South Korea is also conducive to the catch-up of Samsung Semiconductors. CTOnews.com has previously reported that Sony acquired land in Kumamoto prefecture to reserve capacity. Industry insiders believe that in order to cope with the increasing competition in the future, Sony chose to build a new plant in Kumamoto Prefecture, a "silicon island" with semiconductor clusters.

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