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Jane Lanhee Lee
For Jane Lanhee Lee's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
The logo of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices is seen on a graphics processing unit chip in this illustration
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 5, 2024
AMD hits U.S. roadblock in selling AI chip tailored for China
AMD had hoped to gain a green light from the Commerce Department to sell the AI processor to Chinese customers.
Close-up of a silicon wafer. The Japanese government is funding a range of projects from research to advanced chip manufacturing, making an ambitious $67 billion bid to reclaim a central role in the semiconductor industry.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 27, 2024
Apple and Tesla veterans aim to help Japan design AI chips
The aim is to provide customers with an alternative to the semiconductor leaders Nvidia and Arm.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s new factory in the town of Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, in May. The firm plans to build a second chip fabrication plant in the prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2024
TSMC to build second chipmaking plant in Japan with partners
The facility will be close to the first TSMC plant in the Kumamoto Prefecture town of Kikuyo.
TSMC had said it would make 3nm chips at the second factory, which is expected to be more advanced than the first in Arizona, but on Thursday, it said that incentives from the U.S. government would help determine how advanced the tech inside will be.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2024
TSMC’s second factory in Arizona delayed as U.S. grants remain in flux
Site will start operations only in 2027 or 2028, instead of the chipmaker's earlier guidance of 2026.
Up until very recently, the business of packaging semiconductors — encasing chips in materials that both protect them and connect them to the electronic device they’re part of — was, at best, an afterthought for the industry.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023
A new front is opening up in the U.S.-China conflict over chips
The process of packaging semiconductors is increasingly seen as the "secret sauce" — a path toward achieving higher performance.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s factory currently under construction in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 21, 2023
TSMC eyes third Japan chip plant with cutting-edge 3 nanometer tech
Another plant in Japan, this one making advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) chips, would potentially turn Japan into a major global chipmaking hub.
A specialist removes a Kirin 9000s chip fabricated in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. from a Huawei Mate X5 foldable smartphone in Ottawa on Sept. 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023
Taiwan to probe suppliers helping Huawei with China chip plants
A news report this week identified four firms working on chip plants backed by Huawei in China.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility in Phoenix, Arizona
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2023
TSMC weighs advanced chip packaging in U.S. to ease bottleneck
The U.S. is talking to TSMC about research and development for the first time, in an effort to bring more of the contract chipmaker’s technology onshore.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 14, 2023
Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy
Chiplets, or small chips, can be the size of a grain of sand or bigger than a thumbnail, and are brought together in a process called advanced packaging.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 4, 2023
China's AI industry barely slowed by U.S. chip export rules
The rules restricted shipments of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chips that have become the global technology industry's standard for developing chatbots and other AI systems.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 8, 2022
Nvidia offers new advanced chip for China that meets U.S. export controls
The new chip, called the A800, represents the first reported effort by a U.S. semiconductor company to create advanced processors for China that follow new U.S. trade rules.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2022
Chipmakers have a message for carmakers: Your turn to pay
The shortages of computer chips that forced global automakers to scrap production plans over the past two years are easing — at a new and permanent cost to the car companies.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2022
How China became ground zero for the auto chip shortage
Despite being the world's largest producer of cars, and leader in electric vehicles, China relies almost entirely on chips imported from Europe, the United States and Taiwan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2022
The chip challenge: Keeping Western semiconductors out of Russian weapons
Chipmakers lack the ability to track where many of their lower-end products end up and that could stymie the enforcement of new U.S. sanctions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2022
Intel sees no big profit margin gains before 2025
Intel chief Pat Gelsinger also said Intel would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own the British semiconductor and software design company Arm.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2022
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of defrauding investors
Holmes was acquitted on three counts of defrauding patients who paid for tests from the blood-testing startup, however.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 4, 2021
Made-from-CO2 concrete, sportswear and diamonds spark investor excitement
Companies turning carbon dioxide into products have raised over $800 million so far this year, more than triple the amount seen in 2020.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 20, 2020
Why South Korea trounced U.S. in race for coronavirus test
In late January, South Korean health officials summoned representatives from more than 20 medical companies from their Lunar New Year celebrations to a conference room tucked inside Seoul's busy train station.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 25, 2019
U.S. universities unplug from China's Huawei under pressure from Trump's national security law
Top U.S. universities are ditching telecommunications equipment made by Huawei Technologies and other Chinese companies to avoid losing federal funding under a new national security law backed by the Trump administration.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on