Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executed a legally binding definitive agreement on August 11, 2026 to establish Advanced Vision Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, a joint venture in Koshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The combined commitment is roughly ¥1 trillion (about US$6.4 billion), and the fab is expected to begin volume production of next-generation image sensors for smartphones in 2029.
Sony leads, TSMC brings the process
Sony will act as the sole controlling shareholder and consolidate the JV as a subsidiary of Sony Group. Under the agreement, Sony plans to contribute approximately ¥465 billion through a mix of cash and the transfer of the newly built Koshi fab that it already funded, while TSMC will inject about ¥282 billion in cash. Additional capital tied to the JV's target capacity is being sized on the assumption that the Japanese government will co-fund the ramp, a point Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa signaled shortly after the deal was announced.
Why now: mobile sensors are the next foundry frontier
Sony is the world's largest merchant supplier of CMOS image sensors and is expanding stacked and copper-to-copper bonded architectures for premium smartphones and automotive lidar. Moving to TSMC's advanced logic nodes for the pixel and readout layers lets Sony pack more per-pixel intelligence, denoising and HDR gating directly on-die, which the companies say is essential for the next wave of computational photography and on-sensor AI. Sony will lead core sensor R&D, product planning and design; TSMC will drive the process technology and volume manufacturing know-how.
Regulatory path and next steps
Closing is subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals. The agreement supersedes the preliminary partnership Sony and TSMC unveiled on May 8, 2026, and it lands at a moment when TSMC's Japan footprint — already anchored by the JASM Kumamoto fabs with Sony as a partner — is becoming a strategic hub for camera, automotive and edge-AI silicon. For related coverage on Sony's semiconductor supply chain and TSMC's Japan expansion, see our reports on Nikon and Sony's Apple-tied smartphone imaging demand and chip-industry M&A.
Reporting based on coverage from Sony Semiconductor Solutions, TSMC, Bloomberg and Reuters.