Aiming to secure a stable supply of memory chips for its iPhones, US tech giant Apple may invest billions of dollars to obtain a substantial stake in struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba’s chip business, media reported on Friday.
Apple executives are also considering joining hands with chip manufacturer Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision, for taking a big stake in Toshiba’s semiconductor business.
“Japanese government officials have expressed concerns about Toshiba selling critical technologies to overseas buyers. Apple would have Toshiba keep some shares so the Japanese and US firms combined will have a majority stake,” Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.
Last month, Apple suppliers Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced their intention to bid for a stake in Toshiba’s memory chip unit.
Later, TSMC dropped out of the bid, leaving Foxconn as the highest bidder at $27 billion.
Early this year, Foxconn announced that it is teaming up with Apple to set up a display-panel manufacturing facility in the US at an investment of $7 billion.
The facility could create between 30,000 and 50,000 new jobs and could include the production of TV screens in addition to smartphone displays.
Foxconn has most of its factories in China where it assembles Apple’s iPhones.
Toshiba reported a group net loss of 552.41 billion yen ($5 billion) due to losses related to hefty writedowns incurred by its US nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co, Xinhua news agency reported.
On sales of 576.28 billion yen, Toshiba posted a group operating loss of 3.85 trillion yen during the April-December period.
At the end of March, the multinational corporation approved a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the US by its embattled Westinghouse Electric unit with the conglomerate saying it faced a possible 712.5 billion yen writedown on its failing nuclear energy business and a related group net loss of more than 1 trillion yen.
