Elpida Memory Inc., the sole Japanese supplier of dynamic random access memory chips, said Tuesday it is close to completing a 170 billion yen fundraising program aimed at reinforcing its production capabilities.
The company said it will raise this amount by early November through a capital increase of 66 billion yen and borrowings of more than 100 billion yen.
This will help Elpida Memory boost its production capacity of wafers with a 300-mm diameter to 21,000 units a month.
This volume is well above the firm's target of 16,000 units for the current fiscal year, specified under an earlier plan to raise up to 112.8 billion yen, it said.
The capital subscriptions involve Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of U.S. microprocessing giant Intel Corp., Kingston Technology Co. of the United States, the world's largest maker of memory modules, and the Development Bank of Japan, the firm said.
Elpida Memory is a joint venture between NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd.
It aims to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next year.