July 18, 2024 /SemiMedia/ -- According to Nikkei News, eight Japanese chip manufacturers including Sony, Mitsubishi Electric, Rohm Semiconductor, Toshiba, Kioxia, Renesas, Rapidus and Fuji Electric plan to invest a total of 5 trillion yen (about $31 billion) in semiconductors by 2029 to increase production of image sensors (CIS), logic chips and power semiconductors to meet the needs of artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and energy-saving and carbon-reduction industries.

Nikkei News pointed out that the demand for image sensors in mobile phone cameras is strong, and the application of products has been expanding to the field of autonomous driving in recent years. In response to strong demand, Sony has already planned to invest 1.6 trillion yen in 2021-2026 to increase the production of image sensors.

Toshiba and Rohm are investing a total of 380 billion yen in power components as they are optimistic about the future of the AI data center and electric vehicle markets. Toshiba plans to increase production of silicon power semiconductors, while Rohm will increase production of silicon carbide power semiconductors.

Mitsubishi Electric plans to increase the production capacity of silicon carbide power semiconductors to five times that of 2022 by 2026, and plans to invest 100 billion yen to build a new plant in Kumamoto.

As for the field of logic semiconductors, Rapidus plans to produce 2-nanometer chips in Hokkaido, with a total investment of 2 trillion yen. The Japanese government has decided to subsidize the company with 920 billion yen. Rapidus plans to start trial production of 2-nanometer chips in April 2025 and mass production in 2027.