14 DAY TRIAL // Amidst the heavy speculation revolving around Renesas and the corporations it has dealings with, TSMC felt the need to speak against certain rumors.
TSMC has reportedly denied having any plans to buy the 12-inch fab that Renesas has in Tsuruoka, Yamagata prefecture, Japan.
Market watchers have been speculating that Renesas intends to sell that particular facility. TSMC, because of its close ties with the former, was seen as a primary candidate.
It won't happen though. TSMC is quite fine with the present collaboration. It and Renesas will keep cooperating in their design and manufacturing efforts.
Back in late May (2012) was when the first murmurs about Renesas' struggles made themselves heard. After the 62.6 billion yen loss posted at the end of March, it was clear that things had to change.
What made the situation doubly grim was that the huge figure didn't come about due to any Renesas mistakes, but probably because of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last year.
From the way things are going, Renesas is trying to retire from manufacturing completely. Regrettable, given its status as fifth greatest chip producer in the world.
Certainly, the corporation won't actually disappear. It will work with TSMC on the latter's 20/28nm process and will outsource its 90nm and 40nm products (and perhaps future technologies) to it as well.
For those in search of more background information, Renesas isn't nearly as old as other big names on the IT market.
It was established in 2003 and by 2010 it was large and important enough that it negotiated a merger with NEC instead of being acquired and assimilated like so many other brands. In fact, that merger made it the fourth greatest chip maker at the time, before it slid to fifth spot.
If it is indeed seeking to sell the 12-inch Tsuruoka fab, we can't really guess who will make the move now that TSMC has denied interest.