Sony is planning to make $5.8 billion investment to build a factory to make smartphone image sensors in western Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, according to media reports.
The company plans to break ground on the plant as soon as 2024, and bring it online the next year at the earliest.
Sony is aiming revenue of 1,440 billion yen from its Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS) business for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) is building a chip plant in Kumamoto, with Sony and auto parts maker Denso each taking a minority stake in the $8.6 billion project. Sony plans to source logic chips for image sensors from the TSMC plant.
The global image sensor market is expected to reach $41.672 billion by 2032, with the market growing at a CAGR of 6.7 percent from the forecast period of 2022 to 2032. In 2022, the image sensor market is expected to reach $21,725 billion.
