Hitachi, Toshiba and Renesas to build 65 nm fab

Hitachi, Toshiba and Renesas will collaborate on building a new fab that all three companies can use for outsourcing semiconductor manufacturing. According to a press release, the three firms will found a planning company this month, which will be planning and developing the new factory.

The facility is expected to be used build 65 nm products, but is capable to make the jump to finer technologies, such as the following 45 nm generation. The three companies expect that a 45 nm fab will require an investment of at least $2.67 billion - which is on the lower end of the range Intel provided to journalists recently. The processor manufacturer expects fab costs to soon touch as much as $5 billion and believes that only companies with annual revenues of more than $10 billion will be able to shoulder such investments.