Benzinga | Oct 8, 2021 08:30AM EDT

Sony Plans To Invest In Apple Supplier's Japanese Chip Plant: Nikkei Asia

* Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (NYSE:TSM) and Sony Group Corp (NYSE:SONY) are planning to jointly invest about 800 billion yen ($7 billion) to build a semiconductor factory in western Japan, Nikkei Asia reports.

* Sony may also acquire a minority stake in a new company that will manage the factory, located in Kumamoto Prefecture, on Sony-owned land adjacent to the latter's image sensor factory.

* The factory will manufacture semiconductors for camera image sensors and chips for automobiles and other products. The factory is likely to go into operation by around 2023 or 2024.

* The Japanese government will back the project with subsidies.

* Japanese chipmakers quit the race for large-scale chip development by the 2010s and contracted out the production of advanced semiconductors to companies like TSM.

* Price Action: TSM shares traded lower by 0.03% at $110.80 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.