Japan lost its edge in chips decades ago — to chip designers in the US and manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea. Since the 1990s, the gap has only widened. The world’s most advanced silicon, powering artificial intelligence, is not made in Japan. Yet Japanese chip-related stocks are still going strong.
The supply chain disruptions and swings in demand that trouble chipmakers across Taiwan, South Korea and the US have been kinder on Japanese companies. Shares of Advantest and Resonac, formerly Showa Denko, have gained more than a third from last year’s lows, less affected by broader chip sector weakness. This week, shares in JX Advanced Metals, the largest listing in Japan in almost seven years, rose as much as 6 per cent on their first day of trading.
Assembling billions of transistors on to a tiny silicon wafer may seem like an engineering feat. But just as crucial as engineering is the chemistry behind the process. From start to finish, chipmaking depends on a wide range of ultra-high-purity materials.