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TOKYO and SAN JOSE, Calif. — The data storage hardware companies Kioxia and Western Digital are extending their joint venture to a plant site in Japan.
Kioxia and Western Digital entered an agreement to jointly invest in the first phase of the Fab7 (Y7) factory at Kioxia’s Yokkaichi Plant campus in the Mie Prefecture of Japan, according to the companies this month.
The investment is expected to enable initial production beginning this fall, as construction of the first phase of Y7 is completed.
Y7 is the sixth flash memory factory at the Yokkaichi Plant campus, which is one of the world’s largest flash memory manufacturing sites.
The first phase of the Y7 facility will produce 3D flash memory devices, including 112- and 162-layer nodes.
Kioxia and Western Digital plan to continue to “maximize synergies” through the joint development of 3D flash memory and joint investments based on market trends.
The investment in Y7 builds on the 20-year joint-venture partnership between Kioxia and Western Digital.
“The rapid digitization of societies underpins accelerating use of memory products,” said Nobuo Hayasaka, president and CEO, Kioxia.
Kioxia will continue to leverage its “technological partnership and economies of scale” to develop and produce semiconductor products and achieve organic corporate growth, Hayasaka said.
Siva Sivaram, president of technology and strategy at Western Digital, said the investment accentuates the company’s “productive and positive relationship with Kioxia” and underscores its “multi-faceted commitment to Japan.”
The strategic partnership with Kioxia increases Western Digital’s “scale of manufacturing and R&D capabilities,” Sivaram said.
