Taiwan Memory - a new memory chip company to be set up by Taiwan's government - announced that it has selected Japanese Elpida as its partner to help shore up the struggling chip industry, Dow Jones reported on April 2. Through the alliance, Taiwan Memory will be granted access to Elpida's technologies to develop DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) memory chips, while Elpida will gain access to the NT$30 billion (US$901.4 million; US$1 = NT$33.3) cash injection from Taiwan's government.

 

Later, Elpida stated that Taiwan Memory will buy 10% share in the company, with an expected value of around NT$2-3 billion (US$60.1-90.1 million), according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News. Taiwan Memory is yet to confirm this investment, however. Instead of merging Taiwanese DRAM chipmakers, Taiwan Memory now plans to buy facilities from these chipmakers and/or outsource chipset manufacturing to them, to be sold either under the name of Elpida or Taiwan Memory.

 

Meanwhile, Taiwan Memory said that the company is still in talks with US-based Micron for a possible partnership. However, Micron has expressed its hesitation in joining in the Taiwanese government's plan, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 3.