Philips Plans $1.2-Billion Chip Plant Venture

Royal Philips Electronics, Europe’s largest consumer electronics maker, said it will join with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Singapore’s EDB Investments to build a $1.2-billion computer chip factory in Singapore. The plant, to be operational in the second half of 2000, will produce logic chips used in devices such as televisions and mobile phones. Philips will own 48% of the joint venture; TSMC will hold 32%; and EDB, an investment arm of the Economic Development Board of Singapore, will hold 20%. Research firm Dataquest ranks Philips the world’s ninth-largest semiconductor producer. It forecasts that the market for logic chips will grow from $25 billion in 1997 to $40 billion in 2002.