TOKYO – Denso, Japan’s leading auto parts maker and supplier to Toyota Motor, will invest about 500 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in the semiconductor business by 2030, its president Shinnosuke Hayashi revealed on Thursday at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo.

The investment will be used for research and development, capital expenditure, and mergers and acquisitions. The company aims to develop high-performance chips, which are becoming increasingly important, for use in automobiles.

“Stable procurement of materials is essential to expand production [of semiconductors], and we will build strategic alliances with various companies [to achieve that],” Hayashi stressed.

Denso announced earlier this month that it will invest about $500 million in the Silicon Carbide (SiC) business of U.S. material maker Coherent, and the Japanese company plans to actively pursue such partnerships. SiC is a key material in power semiconductors.

Denso began a three-year plan to invest 250 billion yen in the semiconductor field from 2022. By presenting a longer-term investment plan, it is doubling down on its semiconductor focus. It has not disclosed sales figures for its semiconductor business, but aims to triple current sales by 2035.

President Hayashi also mentioned software development, saying, “we will shift from the basic design phase to the implementation phase of product realization,” and revealed plans to collaborate with Toyota and other companies on joint software development, using a Denso affiliate which develops software for cars.