Japan’s three biggest power-chip makers want to become one company, and the wiring is proving harder to rearrange than the ambition.
Mitsubishi Electric is exploring a combination of its power-semiconductor operations with those of Rohm and Toshiba, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg.
The talks are part of a wider scramble to control the chips inside every electric vehicle, and the three have already signed a memorandum of understanding to study what they call a “business and management integration”.
Power semiconductors are the unglamorous parts that manage the current flowing through motors, chargers and industrial drives. Demand is climbing as carmakers electrify and, increasingly, start designing chips in-house.
A combined group would hold roughly 11% of the global market, according to analyst estimates, second only to Germany’s Infineon on about 24%. That would make it the world’s number-two supplier, with combined power-device revenue above $8bn.
