Toshiba announced recently its board of directors had approved a further investment by Toshiba Memory in production equipment for Fab 6 at its Yokkaichi operations in Mie (Japan).

Toshiba's Fab 6, which is still under construction, will be dedicated to producing the company's 3D flash memory.

Toshiba Memory will invest about JPY110 billion (US$984.4 million) as a second investment in Fab 6 for the installation of additional manufacturing equipment in the phase-1 cleanroom, Toshiba said. The company added it had asked SanDisk (now owned by Western Digital) whether the US-based partner intends to jointly participate in this second investment.

Toshiba in August 2017 disclosed plans to unilaterally spend approximately JPY195 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2018 on equipment and cleanroom facilities installed at Phase 1 of Fab 6 and construction on Phase 2. The planned investment was originally set at JPY180 billion.

Toshiba has signed a deal to sell Toshiba Memory to a group led by Bain Capital for about JPY2 trillion. The Bain Capital-led consortium includes Bain, Hoya, SK Hynix and US investors comprising of Apple, Kingston Technology, Seagate Technology and Dell Technologies Capital. Toshiba will also fund the acquisition to maintain a stake.

Toshiba expects to complete its sale of Toshiba Memory by March 2018. The sale will still be consummated even if Toshiba is not allowed to transfer its JV interests to the acquirers unless the transfer of Toshiba Memory's stock itself is blocked by an injunctive order, Toshiba said.

Western Digital is seeking to ban Toshiba's transfer of its shares in their manufacturing JVs to any third party, and the two companies are engaged in litigation and arbitration.