Mitsui Chemicals to Buy Chip Materials Maker JSR in Japan's Biggest Chemicals Deal at $11.6 Billion

Mitsui Chemicals said on Monday, 9 November 2026, that it will acquire chipmaking materials maker JSR from state-backed fund Japan Investment Corp for 1.84 trillion yen ($11.61 billion), with the Development Bank of Japan also investing. The deal is the largest in Japan's chemicals sector and stands to reshape the chip supply chain as the government moves to boost its competitiveness. JSR makes photoresists, the light-sensitive coatings used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers. Mitsui plans to sell shares worth up to 150 billion yen and take out a 1.64 trillion yen bridge loan to help finance the transaction, and aims to close the deal in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2028.

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Nov 9, 2026 - 17:36

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A silicon wafer with rainbow-coloured chip patterns in a cleanroom, with photoresist chemical bottles on the left and two workers in white protective suits in the background.

Mitsui Chemicals to Buy Chip Materials Maker JSR in Japan's Biggest Chemicals Deal at $11.6 Billion

Mitsui Chemicals said on Monday, 9 November 2026, that it will acquire chipmaking materials maker JSR from state-backed fund Japan Investment Corp (JIC) for 1.84 trillion yen ($11.61 billion), with the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) also investing. The deal is the largest in Japan's chemicals sector and stands to reshape the chip supply chain as the government moves to boost its competitiveness.

A deal bigger than the buyer

The 1.84 trillion yen price breaks down into 1,392.1 billion yen of equity value, including DBJ's stake, and 447.9 billion yen of interest-bearing debt and other items. DBJ will invest 200 billion yen, and its stake will be converted into non-voting preferred shares, while Mitsui Chemicals will hold all voting rights after completion. Mitsui will sell shares worth up to 150 billion yen to help finance the transaction, according to a filing, and take out a bridge loan of 1.64 trillion yen, to be partially paid back through the equity raise. Mitsui Chemicals' market capitalisation stood at 664.6 billion yen, LSEG data showed, based on Friday's closing price — far smaller than the 1.84 trillion yen it is paying. Mitsui Chemicals shares were trading down around 13 per cent on Monday at about 1,500 yen, after falling more than 10 per cent last week when Reuters first reported Mitsui as the buyer.

Why JSR matters

JSR makes photoresists, the light-sensitive coatings that let lithography tools print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. In an investor presentation on the deal, Mitsui Chemicals described JSR as number two in the global market for ArF and EUV photoresists and "the only company capable of offering both CAR and MOR solutions for EUV." The transaction unites the top maker of extreme ultraviolet pellicles with the second-largest producer of advanced logic photoresists. JSR's semiconductor materials sales rose from 157.9 billion yen in fiscal 2024 to 196.0 billion yen in fiscal 2025, the presentation shows. For the fiscal year ended March 2026, JSR reported revenue of 440.7 billion yen and core operating profit of 62.3 billion yen, with 6,951 employees. Mitsui plans to combine JSR's advanced photoresists with its own semiconductor-materials products, including pellicles that protect photomasks and tapes and thick-film resists used in chip packaging, and JSR will sit at the centre of Mitsui's ICT Solutions unit. Mitsui is expanding its chip materials business and aims for additional annual profit of 40 billion yen through the JSR buy.

JSR's second sale in three years

Buying JSR is "not simply about strengthening our semiconductor materials business, but a strategic deal to accelerate the transformation of our portfolio," Mitsui Chemicals CEO Satoshi Ichimura told a press conference. JSR has already been through one buyout. A tender offer for the old, listed JSR by JICC-02, the company that later took the JSR name, closed in April 2024, and the shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange that June. JIC, which is overseen by Japan's finance ministry, paid 900 billion yen and said at the time it planned to use the business to promote consolidation in semiconductor materials. The deal is more than double the $4.55 billion Showa Denko paid for Hitachi Chemical in 2020. Mitsui plans to sell off JSR's life sciences unit and other non-core businesses to raise JSR's value, aiming to regain a sound financial position within three years. The acquisition still needs competition and foreign-investment clearances in Japan and other countries, and Mitsui aims to close it in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2028.