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JX Nippon Mining & Metals to invest 23 billion yen to expand sputtering target production for AI data centers
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 09:08 PM
JX Nippon Mining & Metals has announced a investment of approximately 23 billion yen to increase production capacity for semiconductor sputtering targets at its new Hitachi-naka plant in Ibaraki Prefecture. This expansion is driven by surging demand from AI data centers.
Context
JX Nippon Mining & Metals (a subsidiary of ENEOS Holdings) has announced a 23 billion yen ($150M+) investment to expand production of semiconductor sputtering targets at its new Hitachinaka plant in Ibaraki Prefecture. Sputtering targets are high-purity physical vapor deposition materials essential for creating the thin-film wiring layers in advanced integrated circuits. This expansion is specifically designed to meet surging global demand from AI data centers, which require high-performance logic and memory chips with increasingly complex multilayered structures.
As the world’s leading supplier of sputtering targets, JX Nippon expects sales volume for these materials to outpace the broader wafer market due to the high material intensity of sub-5nm nodes. This investment follows the company's recent 2.5x capacity expansion in Arizona and marks a significant step in its strategy to transition into a specialized technology-based firm. The move strengthens the AI supply chain by securing the upstream high-purity metal components required for the next generation of generative AI hardware.
Sources (7)
[PDF] JX Advanced Metals Integrated Report 2025Japanese metals giant buys Canadian e-scrap processor - Resource RecyclingSputtering Targets Market Size, Share & Industry Outlook [2034]
Sputtering Targets Market Growth - Trends & Forecast 2025 to 2035How to Choose the Right Sputtering Target for Semiconductor Applications - XINKANGSputtering Targets for Semiconductors Market Size, Share, Growth ...Sputtering thin films: Materials, applications, challenges and future directions - ScienceDirect
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