Hitachi to Inject US$12m into Chip VentureJapan's biggest electronics maker, Hitachi Ltd, said Friday it would inject US$12 million into a chipmaking joint venture in China, raising its stake in the firm to 80 percent from the current 70 percent.Through the move, Hitachi hopes to take advantage of the rapid growth of China's mobile phone market by supplying chips to key European cellular phone manufacturers operating in China, a company official said. Due later this month, the additional investment will allow the joint venture set up with EDB Investments Pte Ltd (EDBI), the investment arm of Singapore's Economic Development Board, to start making semiconductors for use in mobile phones in April, he said. The fund injection will raise the unit's capital to US$31 million from a current US$19 million, allowing it to produce one million chips a month. The semiconductors serve as radio frequency modules that enable the transmission of data signals in wireless systems, the official said. |
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