October 10, 2003 – Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc. says it has raised 160 billion yen ($1.5 billion) and could pull in 180 billion yen ($1.65 billion) by the end of October, well above previous estimates of 112.8 billion yen ($1 billion), according to Reuters.
The funding will help the JV between Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp. boost production capacity in line with competitors Samsung and Micron.
“For 12-in. wafers, we can raise production capacity to 21,000 from 16,000 without using a lot of money,” said CEO Yukio Sakamoto.