Joint Venture: Sony and TSMC to build smartphone image sensors together
[16:46 Tue,11.August 2026 � by blip] ���
In May, Sony and TSMC announced a non-binding agreement to jointly produce image sensors as part of a future partnership. This was initially a fairly vague declaration of intent, which has now been specified: a joint venture called Advanced Vision Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation is indeed being established, with Sony acting as the sole controlling shareholder; the company will be managed as a consolidated Sony subsidiary.
In fact, Sony and TSMC have been cooperating for years in the manufacturing of semiconductors for Sony's stacked CMOS image sensors. While Sony is primarily responsible for sensor design and pixel technology, TSMC supplies, among other things, the logic wafers manufactured using advanced CMOS processes. In 2021, Sony therefore acquired a stake in TSMC's Japanese subsidiary JASM in Kumamoto in order to secure corresponding manufacturing capacities in the long term. Through the new joint venture, Sony is now integrating TSMC directly into its sensor production while apparently remaining in control of sensor architecture and product development.
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Mass production is expected to begin in 2029 in the new fab in Koshi City (Japan) already built by Sony. The production facility will be transferred as an asset to the new company—together with cash deposits, Sony is contributing a total of around 465 billion yen, and TSMC around 282 billion yen. Combined, this initially amounts to 747 billion yen, or approximately 4.7 billion dollars. Additional investments for the planned production capacity are planned, provided the project is supported by the Japanese government.
Sony thus intends to take the lead in core image sensor technologies, product planning, and product design, while TSMC's advanced process technology and manufacturing expertise are to be utilized for development and volume production. While the initial joint statement in May mentioned "next-generation image sensors" as well as "physical AI applications, for example in the automotive industry and robotics," the current focus is explicitly only on "the serial production of smartphone image sensors using advanced manufacturing processes."
