TI
(Texas Instruments) announced on July 14, 2010 that the company is going to
acquire two wafer fabs located in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan from Spansion,
according to Bloomberg. The two plants are currently owned and operated by Spansion.
TI plans to utilize one of the two fabs first and preserve the other for future
use. It is reported that the plant will be used by TI mainly to produce data
convertors, power controllers and amplifiers by the end of 2010. Added revenue
brought by the new plant is estimated to be approximately US$1 billion annually.
This
is the second time in 2010 that TI has tried to expand its semiconductor
production capacity. In August, TI purchased machinery from German chipmaker
Qimonda.