History (1997): SanDisk Invests $45 Million in Wafer Fabs

Until recently, SanDisk subcontracted its flash products from Matsushita Electronics, NEC and LG Semicon.

The latter firms will continue in this capacity, but the flash disk company has decided to invest $45 million in a joint venture semiconductor manufacturing facility headed by United Microelectronics Corp. in Taiwan.

The financial transaction gives SanDisk a 10%t equity stake in the joint venture, known as USI (United Silicon Inc.). UMC, its affiliates and members of the USI joint venture (Xilinx, Alliance Semiconductors) are expected to provide a major portion of the capitalization, currently projected to be in excess of $800 million.

The USI fab is under construction at the Science Based Industrial Park in Hsin Chu City, Taiwan.

Full monthly production of 20,000 8-inch wafers is scheduled in 1999. SanDisk will be guaranteed 12.5% of the output.

This article is an abstract of news published on ≠115 on August 1997 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.