*****For immediate use February 9^th, 2001

NEC Opens LCD Driver IC to Meet Expanding Market Demand

TOKYO February 9th, 2001 - NEC Corporation (NEC) (NASDAQ: NIPNY, FTSE: 6701q.l, TSE: 6701) and its manufacturing subsidiary NEC Kansai, Ltd. (NEC Kansai) today opened a new 20 billion Yen semiconductor plant for production of driver ICs used in liquid crystal displays (LCD), only six and a half months after making the decision to construct the facility and at half of the cost normally associated with such an investment.

NEC was able to significantly reduce the lead-time for establishing its new semiconductor fabrication plant by converting an existing building at NEC Kansai and constructing a clean room within it that is designed to use sub-floor equipment to minimize the amount of overall floor space used. Together, these factors helped reduced construction costs by 50%. The plant has also been designed to use energy saving technologies and to have zero waste emission.

With 4,200 square meters of floor space, the clean room provides for an initial production capacity of 4,000 8-inch wafers per month. By March 2001, this capacity will be expanded to 6,000 wafers per month.

Driver ICs are used in LCD panels to control the graphics displayed on the screen. As applications for LCDs have seen increased penetration into a wider variety of systems, from mobile phones to computer monitors and flat screen televisions, unit demand has continued to soar. With the advent of color screen mobile telephones, demand for the ICs saw an even sharper rise from the spring of 2000.

LCD driver ICs use high-withstand voltage semiconductor process technology, a capability that only a few manufacturers have leaving supply short of overall market demand. As the rapid growth of Internet-capable mobile terminals continues and as these terminals also switch to use of color displays thus increasing the number of devices needed for each display, total market demand is set for considerable growth.

To meet this significant opportunity, NEC has opened new production lines dedicated to LCD driver ICs at its semiconductor production facilities in California, Scotland and China, as well as securing technology and production licensing agreements with SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and Tokin Corporation to expand supply. As a result, NEC expects to see its market share grow from 20% to 30% in the driver IC market.

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) (TSE: 6701) is a leading provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000. For further information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec-global.com

• Outline of NEC Kansai, Ltd.

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                        Media Contact: 
                        Aston Bridgman
                        NEC Corporation 
                        TEL   :+81-3-3798-6511
                        FAX   :+81-3-3457-7249
                        E-mail:a-bridgman@ak.jp.nec.com