Industry sources have circulated rumors that Micron Technology intends to raise its holdings in its joint venture with Nanya Technology, Inotera Memories. Inotera recently approved a fund-raising plan to issue new shares worth NT$11.5 billion.
Inotera said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) that 512 million, or 80% of its planned issuance of 640 million new shares will be subscribed to by existing shareholders including Nanya and Micron. Stakeholders will be allowed to buy a certain amount of new Inotera shares based upon their holdings in the company.
The sources said Micron is seeking to buy more Inotera shares, in order to strengthen management of the venture's operations. Both Nanya and Inotera declined to comment on the speculation.
Micron, in November 2008, completed the purchase of Qimonda's 35.6% stake in Inotera, and also began to receive the DRAM output formerly reserved for Qimonda from Inotera's 300mm (12-inch) wafer fabs.
Inotera is on track to convert all of its 12-inch chip production (130,000 units/month) to 50nm processing by the end of 2010. The company has revealed plans to budget NT$45 billion for 2010, up more than 200% from 2009 (NT$12-13 billion).
In other news, Japan's Elpida Memory has said its subsidiary Rexchip Electronics will start producing 40nm 2Gb DDR3 chips in the second quarter of 2010. Elpida, in October 2009, announced its stake in the venture with Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) had increased to 64%.