(Reuters) – Micron Technology Inc is poised to get about 200 billion yen ($1.48 billion) in financial incentives from Japan to help it make next-generation memory chips in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The funding is likely to be announced when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets a delegation of executives from chipmakers on Thursday, the report said.
Japan has been striving to reinvigorate its chip sector, whose global market share has fallen to about 10% from around 50% in the late 1980s, while the United States is increasingly urging its allies to work together to counter China’s chips and advanced technology development.
Micron will use the funding to install advanced, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) chipmaking equipment from ASML Holding NV at its Hiroshima facility to fabricate DRAM chips, the report said.
DRAM chips are memory chips that lose the memory when the power is off.
Micron is also expected to contribute its own capital to the Hiroshima expansion with some support from the city, Bloomberg added.
Micron, ASML and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
($1 = 135.0500 yen)
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Subhranshu Sahu)
