I would like to thank you for participating in the press conference for the establishment of the preparatory company in the semiconductor field. I would also like to take this opportunity for your support in our day-to-day business. First, I would like to introduce the participants for today. SBI Holdings, Inc., Representative Director, Chairman, President, and CEO, Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao. SBI Holdings, Inc., Representative Director, Vice President. SBI Securities, Representative Director and President, Mr. Masato Takamura. I am Takamura.
Powerchip Group, Representative Director. PSMC, Representative Director, and Chairman, Dr. Frank Huang. Representative Director, President of PSMC Japan, Mr. Joe Wu. Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor Shunri Oda . We would like to have SBI Holdings' Representative Director, Chairman, President, and CEO, Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao, to present about the preparatory company for establishment of a semiconductor foundry.
After that, we plan to receive a presentation and explanation from other participants. Mr. Kitao, over to you.
Thank you very much for gathering here today despite your busy schedules. All of you probably think that we are a financial company. Therefore, what are they talking about preparing for a preparation company for the semiconductor field? I would like to talk about the background first. This is related to the announcement for today. In Japan, domestically, we would like to establish a semiconductor foundry in Japan. Our partner is PSMC, which is a major semiconductor foundry in Taiwan.
With these two companies, we would like to create a preparatory company, and we will discuss where the factory site will be, or what kind of products we will be manufacturing, and what kind of funding will we have. It is something that both companies will study moving forward. Of course, we are a finance company, we don't have expertise that much for semiconductors, we have to hire semiconductor expertise moving forward, and we have to have semiconductor experts brought in from Taiwan to Japan.
Regarding the start of construction and operation of the plant will be announced as soon as they are finalized. Briefly, I would like to go over the content of the MOU. SBI and PSMC, regarding the establishment of the new company and the initial configuration is something that we will be considering from now onwards and focus on automotive IC chips using the mature logic technology nodes of 40 nm and 55 nm in the short term. This is for the industrial use and for the medium term, endeavor towards high added value by moving to wafer-on-wafer 3D stacked wafers, as well as process node of 28 nm and below.
For the long term, we would like to establish a research institute to develop a more advanced semiconductor technology. The role that we will be playing, of course, is to lobby the Japanese government for potential subsidy, including government subsidies and land and infrastructure availability and tax incentives, and also lobby towards the municipal governments and as a company ourselves. In terms of financing, we would like to participate in the newly established company.
Also, we would like to work on globally financing and would like to support that effort as well. In terms of selecting the site for the plant, providing advice for that, already from several candidate sites, we are receiving explanation. After this meeting today, I believe that there will be more invitations of the plant sites moving forward. We would like to select the most beneficial one. As you know, we will need industrial water and electricity, also whether we will have a thorough logistics that can be in place or it is available, is something that we need to further review.
Furthermore, on the PSMC side, the PBTO plan, build, transfer, and operate services will be provided. Foundries, of course, they will make the product. However, my understanding is that basically they're in the service business. Therefore, towards their customers, they will provide the best product, and we would like them to focus on that. Also the planning of the plant or dispatching the construction teams or transfer of technical information or the factory operation or the training for local employees of the joint venture will be probably provided by PSMC Group as well.
Also what's very important is that the IP that will be created in the company in Japan, the IP, the intellectual property, will belong to the newly established company. When TSMC, if they establish a plant in Japan, the IP will belong to TSMC, generally speaking. For this partnership with PSMC, this will be a unique setup. It will provide a unique benefit to Japan, is what we think. At this timing, entering the semiconductor field is the timing vouchsafed by heaven, advantage of the land, and harmony of the people.
As you know, the Japanese government has placed the semiconductor industry as the national industry, because there's a U.S.-China struggle for supremacy regarding semiconductor, also there is an increasing geopolitical risk of having a unipolar concentration in Taiwan. That is why the government and also the U.S. providing the support led to the thought of establishing this foundry in Japan. With the advantage of the land, increase in global semiconductor demand due to advances in AI, DX, IoT and EVs.
Japan has many semiconductor-related companies with high international market shares. I will mention about this later, but the semiconductor material or semiconductor manufacturing equipment companies do exist. Also the demanders, meaning the companies that use the semiconductors, such as automotive companies. Japan is one of the top automobile manufacturing countries. There's quite a strong demand from the automobile industry.
Also harmony of people, PSMC, Taiwan's third largest and the world's sixth largest semiconductor foundry, we will be partnering with them. In addition to that, we will embody the foundry in Japan. Being able to do this, I really greatly appreciate your partnership, Frank. In the past, Japan was winning in the semiconductor industry, but in Japan, the resources have declined. SBI, through this project, can provide investment and financing opportunities to many regional financial institutions through this project.
I always said that go beyond finance and finance at its core and always enter new fields of business. What kind of new fields of business should we enter is something that I've been thinking for a long time. At that time, we've been focusing on regional revitalization. We've been putting efforts to attract a global financial center to Osaka, which is in relationship with regional revitalization initiatives. We want to create a Osaka fintech center in Osaka by creating cluster of fintech companies in the Kansai region.
This is something that we have been thinking of. At that timing, this project came about, and we thought that the semiconductor business is the best business to embody that we were aiming for. As you know, Elpida went bankrupt. Technology-wise, they had a very good technology. The reason why at the end is because they ran out of funding. Technology-wise or technical-wise, even though they're successful, if they don't have enough funding, they won't be able to move forward.
Semiconductors, they have quite a volatile up and downs, and it's a very cyclical industry. When they require the investment to be competitive in the world when they're down, they needed funding. I think that if Elpida was able to hold on for six months, they didn't have to go bankrupt. The DPJ, Japan lost its ruling seat in the Japanese government and lost the support. Financial support is very important for the semiconductor business. What kind of financial support can we provide? We have over 10 million customers in SBI Securities.
We'll be able to contribute by financing from Japan and from the international arena. We have the asset balance of JPY 18 trillion . In addition to that, together with the regional financial institutions for the last 3.5 years, we have been establishing a good relationship. The regional financial institutions, of course, they have many funds that they can provide, but they don't have local industry. They have money, but they cannot provide it. Creating the structure that we can finance the blue-chip companies is what we thought that we can do.
Of course, the main banks, Mizuho, in addition to that, SMBC, of course, we will consult them as well, and seek various financings and lending in loans. We have been always thinking of the fourth mega bank concept. With over 100 banks, we have various type of alliance and partnerships. SBI Shinsei Bank, together with them, through this project, we would like this bank to be able to contribute to the local area. As for the venture capital, we have been investing in 1,156 companies. The amount of investment that we have made up till now is JPY 545.9 billion.
Amount of capital commitment is JPY 711.7 billion . We have the largest venture capital in Japan. We have the abundance in the funding. We are focusing on investments in privately held companies in the next generation of core industries such as AI, blockchain, fintech, IT, biotech, life science, healthcare, and green energy, which are the cutting edge technology. Semiconductor is at the cutting edge, and I think that it is a good investment. It just happened that we are planning to establish a fund that is over JPY 100 billion .
Japan, as the national policy, is going to focus on semiconductor field. The Japanese government finally started to think about that. Of course, they should, because this is the per capita nominal GDP ranking of OECD countries. 1992, we were in fourth place. In 2012, we were in 10th. In 2022, we fell down to number 21 in ranking. That is why the yen is weak, too. We have to do something about that. To do that, we have to revive the manufacturing industry, is what I think. In order to do so, we need to have the semiconductors as industrial base and create a strong ecosystem of the industry.
Of course, without the regional revitalization, we cannot seek any economic growth in Japan, and that's what the late former Prime Minister Abe was saying. What we are talking about is deeply related to that. We made the decision to go into the semiconductor business, and once we decide on the plant site, the income of that local area and the industry of that local area is going to revive because there will be many related industries that will be revived.
This is a great contribution. METI is having the target of achieve total sales over JPY 15 trillion for domestic semiconductor manufacturers by 2030 and ensure stable supply of semiconductors in Japan. Granting a cumulative total of JPY 330 billion to Rapidus, which seeks to manufacture next generation semiconductors in Japan, or approved up to JPY 476 billion in subsidies for the construction of the plant in Kumamoto by TSMC. These are the things that are done by the Japanese government already.
Of course, this is something they should do if they want to develop the semiconductor industry. I think this is not enough yet. They are saying that the government plans to invest JPY 2 trillion over two years, but that's not enough because Germany or South Korea or Taiwan is investing more than that money. Towards PSMC from India, there was a very strong invitation to India, is what I've heard.
But in India, the modernization is going to advance, accelerate more, and there is going to be a number one country in the world in terms of economic development, and they need a lot of home appliance, they need a lot of automobiles. From a country like that, bringing in semiconductor manufacturing plant or foundry, of course, is very meaningful. This is something that we are focused on is to Excuse me. The Japanese government is committed to creating new industries under the Startup Development Plan.
Of course, this is a promising area, so the government needs to invest. Japan's share in the global semiconductor market was 50% in the past. However, that decreased and decreased, and now it's around 10%. Once again, the semiconductor industry needs to be revised as representing the manufacturing industry once again. If we just simply think about, I suddenly studied about semiconductor, there's the Moore's Law regarding semiconductor. Probably all of you know about this. In order to the technology base, Moore's Law is miniaturization, larger wafer size, and integration.
When I read into Moore, it seems that miniaturization is almost coming to a limit. If it has reached the limit or if it's close to the limit, I thought that now is the perfect time to enter the semiconductor foundry field. Enormous capital investment due to the sophistication of the technology base is what's happening. There's a decrease in new entrants in the market because it's difficult to enter the market. There's a decrease in competition. We're very lucky to be able to enter the market in such a situation.
Regarding semiconductor technology, where the government spending money or providing support is the high-end semiconductors. We don't have to focus on that. More of a middle range or the mature semiconductor products, there's quite a large demand, but it's now a bipolar situation. The more you go to the high end, it requires more CapEx, and in a way, the competition becomes more severe. In the high end, at the 7 nm, as it's written here, 10, 14, 16 nm. The percentage that it comprises is only about 10%-20% of the total.
The rest is the middle range and mature. At 20, 22, 28, 40, 45, 55, 65 nm. This middle range and the mature semiconductors are still continued to be necessary. Actually, in a way, it is more demanded. Semiconductors of 28 nanometer or more account for more than 90% of the total demand for automotive applications. This is also the current situation. Taiwan's TSMC, which is a leading semiconductor foundry, has its strengths in the so-called semi-advanced fields. Here it says the semi-logic semicondu
ctors and others are listed here. There is accumulation of know-how, high performance, next generation material, silicon carbide, or the power semiconductors. They decided to have a mass production from 2025. They have such technology as well. In terms of human resources, they have the graduate school advanced technology. Together with TSMC, they have created this graduate school. They have that to foster human resources. Utilizing building a robust ecosystem for the semiconductor industry in Japan by leveraging the strength of Japan semiconductor infrastructure.
We do have the demanders in automobile, biotechnology, and AI for the product. You can look at this later. Different growth rates per product due to variations in the composition of the final market is what's shown here. The high-end DRAM and NAND is saying that the performance is struggling, a microcontroller unit or power transistors are, on the other hand, quite strong if you look at these numbers. Depending on the semiconductor product type, there is a difference of whether they're performing strong or not.
Application-specific semiconductor demand outlook by SBI Securities at the end market, there are the forecasts for automobiles and industry equipment. You can see in this area, Japan has its strength. Application-Specific ICs shipment trends. For automobile, they're going to continue double-digit increase. In Japan, we're falling behind in terms of EVs. From now onwards, they're going to enter the EV market in full scale. That means that the demand for EV and all-solid-state batteries are necessary as well.
Significant growth opportunities in non-memory semiconductors in automotive and industrial machinery is something that we can expect to grow as well. This is showing in the long term, the semiconductor industry is expected to grow at a high rate due to the mega trends such as AI, DX, and GX. As an export purpose, there is a meaning to manufacture it in Japan, making Japan the global supplies hub. If we can develop in that way, that will be the best. In a way, Japan has its strengths.
That is, as I have mentioned before, is the semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In Japan, both in equipment and material, has a very high share, U.S. 35%, Japan 31% for the manufacturing equipment for semiconductors. In terms of the semiconductor component materials, Japan is at 49%. Here it is showing in what areas of semiconductor manufacturing equipment that we have a large share. The green part is the Japanese companies. You will see that there are many areas that the Japanese companies hold strengths in.
Japan needs to create an ecosystem including these companies. In Japan, we only have the vertical integration, but we have to progress in the horizontal integration. It's not going to be the Renesas Electronics, as social needs have been increasing to utilize the foundries, instead of just being self-sufficient. We need to become that way. We, from the past, have been saying, Go beyond finance, with finance as its core. It's been exactly 24 years since we have been founded, and we've been saying this, because always behind products and services, there's financial services.
We need to enter various type of industries. In other industries, there were not that many financial institutions entering. They just provide the money, and they only provide the money once, and that's it. If we do only that, the industries are not going to grow or develop. In Japan, financial industry is an information technology industry. That's why we have been focusing on this industry. We're going to call it JSMC, is what is going to establish. That's how we will name. It says Japan on it.
In various ways, we will be establishing the financial functions so that we can contribute to the recovery of Japan semiconductor industry. Now my time is up, so I would like to conclude my presentations. Thank you very much for your kind attention.
Thank you very much, Mr. Kitao. Next, we would like to invite Dr. Frank Huang, Powerchip Group Representative Director, Chairman, and PSMC Representative Director and Chairman.
Of the SBI, hello, everybody who attend today's meeting from the industry, financial community, and the media. I'm honored to be give some expression of my thought about this joint venture. First, I would like to express my appreciation and honor to have this opportunity to work with a great entrepreneur and a powerful executive, Kitao-san, which was really give me a great opportunity to coming to Japan to work together. You see, Powerchip has been from Japan 30 years ago, from Mitsubishi, so we are born as a Japanese technology and other supporter.
Powerchip actually is the only semiconductor company in the world use Japanese technology for foundry, both in logic and the DRAM. Okay. Very unique. After 30 years, today, we'd like to have opportunity come to Japan to work together. Especially when I met Chairman, I was very appreciate that there's opportunity. The worst situation is like that. Japan is a great industry country. 30 years ago, Japan has 50% of worldwide semiconductor market. Not only DRAM product and equipment and the raw material.
Today, raw material, equipment, Japan is still very strong, as the Chairman said. The manufacturer is no longer strong, but I think it's time to a great industry country of Japan to have its own foundry. The joint venture I would like to have with Chairman is to have a Japanese own foundry, and will be important for Japanese supply chain. Japan is such a great industry country, require in many. Right now, most automotive and other component is import. It's not much of sense because even China was trying to catch up the semiconductors, have every component made by itself.
I believe Japan is also have to do so. We are really like to feedback our technology and supporting, and together with Chairman, hope to build a next foundry company in Japan. Japan maybe have a TSMC, maybe have other country, but it's not Japan. TSMC is TSMC. Powerchip with SBI will create a Japanese entrepreneur. It will be a Japanese company for Japanese made in Japan, and which is important if Japan will continue to successful industry to control its own semiconductor. It's vital and very important.
I'm very appreciate the speech that Chairman said. It's time to do the right thing. It's time to have a chance because the resources, human being, and people, Japan has abundant, but we have put thing together so that we will be have opportunity. We have opportunity to have this entrepreneur success. It's a good opportunity. Still today, we still have a business with Mitsubishi. Long time ago, we have really respect Japanese Honda industry. We learn everything. Today, when Japan is no longer compete strongly in manufacture of semiconductor, I think it's lost opportunity.
Chairman has said that Japan should not lose some arrangement other entrepreneur because of the financing. I totally agree. The fail of the Japanese semiconductor, it goes shortage of funding. I'm here to really appreciate this opportunity to work together with SBI, especially if Japanese semiconductor need a success, it's not only technology, it's not only industry, it's financing. With a strong partner like SBI and the Kitao-san, I think we are no longer so worried about the future financing. This is a key to success.
It's not technology. Technology, we do have. It's not industry. Industry, Japan has. Money is a key word. I'm really appreciate that Kitao-san has decide to support such kind of joint venture. With such kind of financing capacity, I believe. I believe there is a great opportunity for us to success. I strongly believe this is important for Japanese itself. Our family has a deep relation with Japan. My parent was in Japan during the war. Some of my brother, sister born in Japan. For me, have opportunity to come back to Japan to work together, have this opportunity, I think it's golden opportunity.
There is many country like to work with us, as chairman said, like India, like other country. Our priority is Japan. When chairman decide to do this, so I'm very pleased, and I'm really appreciate. I looking for our team. It's capable to build a fab, transfer technology, training people, and making the product. I guess this is a great With financing technology, industry capacity, this new entrepreneur and the new joint venture should have a opportunity to success. It will. I'm really so appreciate that chairman has made such a great decision to form the joint venture with us, and I'm really appreciate.
Our team is very happy able to do this, following other Taiwanese company who have a site in Japan. The relation between these two countries, Taiwan and Japan, in the case of semiconductor, it's very tied together. We have this opportunity to work together with Japanese industry, especially automotive. I believe it will be a great opportunity for us to success. On the behalf of our Powerchip PSMC, I really want to thank everybody who is supporting us, especially all the team of SBI in such a short time.
Chairman has put things together, to my surprise. It's a great work. I want to thanks him and his team. We are really going to go for it. Okay. Thank you very much, and I hope everybody's health and success. Thank you.
Thank you very much. From PSMC Japan, Representative Director and President, Mr. Joe Wu. We would like to receive a presentation on PSMC Japan.
I will present in Japanese. Let me introduce PSMC. In terms of the world ranking, we are ranked sixth in the foundry ranking, and third in Taiwan. Within the foundry, we are the only company that can handle, provide foundry service for logic and memory. We have five fabs and one under construction. We plan to start mass production by the end of next year for the new factory. Currently, we have 8,200 employees. Last year, the revenue was JPY 358 billion, and 46.8% was GP margin. Let me introduce our management team.
Dr. Frank Huang is Chairman and CEO, Taiwan IoT Technology and Industry Association Chairman, and also he is the Chairman of Taiwan Advanced Automotive Technology Development Association. Mr. Chu and the CFO and CTO are all in Japan today. Last year, I came to Japan and established PSMC Japan. It's been a year since I came to Japan. There, we have two eight-inch fabs, and together, 120,000 is the capacity, and three 12-inch fabs, and together, a monthly capacity of 110,000.
The new P5 fab will start the mass production from the end of next year. This is overseas factory, actually this is a company called Nexchip. This is the joint venture of PSMC. In 2015, at Hefei, we established a foundry. Last year, we were able to mass produce 100,000 on monthly basis. In May of this year in Shanghai at the exchange in Shanghai, this company was listed. The gross margin last year of Nexch ip is same as PSMC itself. This is our business. Logic related business makes up 60% of the revenue. There is PMIC, microcontroller unit, display IC, image sensor.
We work in these areas. In next-generation power semiconductor, SiC and GaN, we plan to mass produce them from 2025. Memory business is not general purpose, but more focused on niche market where price fluctuation is less. This is what we would like to introduce in the AI age. What we can do, what PSMC can do is the cutting-edge package. We have 3D inter-chip wafer-on-wafer technology. PSMC is the only foundry that can handle both logic and memory. Through this, the packaging wafer-on-wafer was made possible.
There are two benefits. One is the reduction of power usage through 3D stacking solution. The electric power on memory axis, because there is no wiring between chips, the required power can be saved by 90%. The second point is the read data volume from memory. Since there is no wiring, the data volume can be increased 10 times and more. These are the two major benefits. So-called next-generation green semiconductor uses this technology.
This is our PSMC open foundry model. Compared to other foundries, at PSMC, we cater to the specific needs of customers, and we have the customization process. This is concrete example, as you can see here. The blue part is a 28 nm or 40 nm or 45 nm. This is handled by PSMC logic process. Each IDM adds a special device, their unique device. Compared to IDM's new product development, cost can be reduced, and the time required for development can be shortened. This is the process that we are concentrating in.
Compared to major foundries, rather than following them, at PSMC, as Mr. Kitao and Frank said, we are focused on the semi-advanced process. The reason is that regarding the shipment of the semiconductor globally, 28 nm and below makes up 10% or lower, and 90% uses 28 nm or larger or even older process. This is the IC supply chain for automotive application in Japan, and we believe we can contribute to this in the automotive industry in Japan. Japan is said to be number one.
However, the semiconductor parts and ICs, there is a shortage of capacity. The major foundries focus on the cutting-edge technology. However, more than 90% are using 28 nm or larger. Therefore, PSMC focuses on the 90% or larger market share. This is the difference of semiconductor industry between Japan and Taiwan. This is the sales of semiconductor in 2021. Annually, in Taiwan, roughly JPY 21 trillion was the total of sales. On the other hand, in Japan, it was nearly JPY 15 trillion. Material equipment is the area Japan has strength in.
However, IDM and fabless design house, I believe there is a potential for growth in these areas. If PSMC builds a foundry in Japan, then IDM and fabless, we can also contribute in these areas as well. In order to strengthen the competitive advantage of IDM, cost competitiveness is important. This company, its size is almost the same as PSMC, but the per person production profit is nearly double in case of PSMC. We want to provide that benefit to customers so that our customers can secure profit from their products, and customers can strengthen their price competitiveness, and thus they can expand their market share.
Here, I talk about human resources development in Japan. In Taiwan, the Taiwanese government and national university has, including PSMC, established a university on the semiconductor with four public entities and more than 10 semiconductor companies' support. The government provides the support, and several hundred engineers are being educated every year. Using that, we will be able to train Japanese semiconductor engineers, and we would like to build a platform to train Japanese process engineers.
In fabless area, there is a potential for growth in Japan. Especially, there are capable, experienced staff in Japan, and in order to generate new innovation, we would like to build an ecosystem. There's foundry fab and startups and design houses. We would like to provide backup to design houses and startups. We intend to provide support so that these are expanded in Japan. The third point is that we would like to build an R&D center in Japan to focus on the development of the cutting-edge technology.
We would like to collaborate with government and Japanese companies, as well as universities. What was developed through that IP and technology information, we plan to transfer them to Japan. This is a summary, last page. If PSMC comes to Japan, what can we contribute to the Japanese semiconductor? There are five points. One is the building of supply chain of the semi-advanced process foundry in Japan. Thus, we would like to reduce the geopolitical risk and BCP risk.
Also, we want to achieve stable supply of industrial specialty semiconductor. We are entering the age of AI, and optimum cutting-edge package, three-dimensional or wafer-on-wafer technology is what we would like to transfer and provide to Japan. Also, we would like to provide support to Japanese semiconductor companies so that they can secure profit and strengthen their price competitiveness and expand market share. Another is a human resources development program.
We would like to copy the success example in Taiwan and replicate in Japan and provide support to startups and design houses, so that the motivation for entrepreneurs in Japan will be raised. Finally, we would like to establish an R&D center and transfer the technology information and IP to Japan on the cutting edge semiconductor. 30 years ago, our company started as Mitsubishi Electric, and 30 years later, to Japanese semiconductor industry, we believe that there is something that we can contribute. Thank you for your kind attention.
Thank you very much. Next, we would like to invite Dr. Shunri Oda, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology, to give us a presentation titled Evaluation of PSMC from an Objective Point of View.
This is Oda speaking. I am not affiliated to SBI nor PSMC. I am going to share with you how I look at PSMC objectively from an independent perspective. First, I would like to explain who am I, Shunri Oda. In 1979, I have completed the doctoral course of Tokyo Institute of Technology. At the time, that year, I was hired as the research associate, then became the associate professor and professor. During this time, I was engaged in research regarding semiconductor devices and quantum nanoelectronics.
In 2017, I have retired and became the Professor Emeritus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, I have served as the specially appointed professor for two years. During that time, I have served as the visiting professor and visiting scholar at MIT, Cambridge University, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Nanjing University, and National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. In terms of the academic society, I became the life fellow and distinguished lecturer of IEEE and the Society of Applied Physics member, also the Japan Industrial Academy member.
As the expert of a semiconductor in Japan, from the time that I was a student at university, I've been researching this area for the last 50 years. As I have mentioned from before, the Japanese semiconductor industry's global ranking in 1987, out of the top 10, there were five Japanese companies. It had great momentum. As you see at the bottom, during that time in 1979, Japan as Number One or The Japan That Can Say No titled books were published. These are representing the times when Japan was very strong.
In 1986, the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement was concluded, since then, the R&D of semiconductor earned activities regarding semiconductor in Japan, because of this agreement, was restricted. As a result, in 2021, within the top 10 ranking, there are no Japanese companies that are included. The Japanese companies have disappeared. In the top 10 ranking of semiconductor manufacturer sales, there were five Japanese manufacturers in 1987, but none in 2021.
However, the Economic Security Promotion Act was enacted in May 2023 and designated semiconductors as specified material products. The Japanese government is also taking this seriously. During the Hiroshima Summit, it was mentioned that there's a need in Japan to establish a semiconductor supply chain through international cooperation. It is the time for the revival of Japanese semiconductor industry and there is Moore's Law. This is showing the progress of semiconductors. Number of transistors integrated on a semiconductor chip will increase fourfolds in three years and 100 folds in 10 years.
The integrated circuit was invented around 1958, and now there's several billion units or even more. In the progress of this, of course, the dimensions of the transistors became small, and every three years it's the factor of 0.7, and area size is half in three years. This trend has continued for more than 50 years, meaning that it has started from 1960, it's more than 50 years, about more than 60 years, this trend is continuing.
Therefore, until now, Intel and TSMC semiconductor manufacturers have followed Moore's Law, which pursues miniaturization to improve performance and have been pursuing cutting-edge technologies, but this requires an enormous amount of CapEx. The Reverse Moore's Law advocated by PSMC, this is to not put a burden on the material manufacturers or peripheral industries and build a healthy supply chain. It is a semi-advanced technology. It's matured and it doesn't require that much cost type of technology area.
However, it's still quite crucial for businesses that are focusing on this area to build up a healthy supply chain. Another point is that logic and memory. PSMC is the only company that has both the logic and memory technology. With the conventional method, as you can see at the diagram on the bottom, on the left-hand side, the memory and logic were placed next to each other horizontally, and the wiring connected the two. Now it's a wafer-on-wafer technology, stacking up the wafers.
This enables the combination of logic and memory to be stacked. Therefore, the wiring itself is very short, and as a result of that, it will be high speed and low power consumption by far and will achieve low cost. Therefore, it is a technology that should be paid attention to. That is all from my side. Thank you very much.