Elpida Memory Inc., the sole Japanese supplier of dynamic random access memory chips, said Tuesday that its major shareholder, Hitachi Ltd., sold part of its stake the same day.

Hitachi reduced its stake to 19.70 percent from 23.84 percent by selling 4 million Elpida shares, according to the DRAM maker.

On Aug. 31, NEC Corp., another major Elpida shareholder, reduced its stake to 13.89 percent from 23.84 percent.

Hitachi and NEC remain the two largest shareholders in Elpida, but the semiconductor maker is no longer an equity-method affiliate of the two electronics giants.

Elpida was created through the 1999 merger of the DRAM divisions of NEC and Hitachi.